



^'U>M.:|.lM^I^>IiIM; 







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M>> 




ILLUSTRATED EDITION.— PRICE, $2. 



SECRETS 



OF THE 



Late Rebellion, 



NOW REVEALED FOR THE FIRST TIME. 



Bv DR. FREESE, 

AUTHOR OF "travels IN THK HOLY LAND, SYRIA, ASIA MINOR, AND TURKEY;" "TRAVELS 

IN THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS;" "TRAVELS IN SWITZERLAND, ITALY, GERMANY, 

AND OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES;" "BOOK OF JOB, TRANSLATED FROM THE 

HEBREW HEMISTICH TO ENGLISH RHYTHMIC VERSE, WITH LIFE OF JOB, 

ETC.;" "Elizabeth's mission;" " paradise lost and paradise 

REGAINED, TRANSPOSED FROM BLANK TO RHYTHMIC VERSE, 
WITH LIFE OF JOHN MILTON;" " BIBLICAL BIOGRAPHY, 
EMBRACING I12I NAMES;" "LIVES OF THE PRESI- 
DENTS;" "the curse CONSUMMATED, OR LBS- 
SONS FROM history;" "ST. JOHn's REV- 
ELATION, AS REVEALED IN HISTORY," | 
AND " CRAYON SKETCHES FROM 
THE LIFE OF CHRIST." 







'^ ; 



PHILADELPHI 

CROMBARGAR & CO 
1882. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 

CROMBARGAR & CO., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



.B.— All communications relative to this work, should be addressed to 

CROMBARGAR & CO.. 

No. 666 Bankson Street, 

Philadblfmia, Pa. 



^uumihu. 



An English Lord and Rebel Colonel making their 
WAY FROM Washington to Richmond through 
Union and Rebel Lines . . . Frontispiece 

PACK 

Fort Sumter . ^ . . , 20 

Montgomery, Ala., before the War . . . .28 

Farragut at Mobile . . . . . . .34 

Battle of Gettysburg 40 

Picket-duty during the War . . . . .52 

Richmond, Va., before the War . . . .64 

Charleston, S. C, before the War . . . .70 

Nashville, Tenn., before the War . . . ,86 

Capitol at Raleigh, N. C * . 98 

Guerillas on the War-path no 

Death of General McPherson 124 

Galveston, Texas .132 

Sherman's March through Southern Confederacy . 148 

Alexandria, Va., during the War . . . .158 

Washington's Residence — Mt. Vernon . . .176 

Vicksburg, Miss., before the War .... 202 

Wheeling, Va., before the War . . . .222 

ix 



X ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Memphis, Tenn., before the War 
Louisville, Ky., before the War 
Natchez, Miss., before the War 
Hand-to-hand Fighting at Mechanicsville 
The Guerillas Attacking Union Troops . 
Pittsburg Landing during the War . 
Harper's Ferry, Va., before the War 
The Fallen 



PAG« 

. 238 

. 264 

. 280 

. 302 

. 320 

• 330 

■' 342 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTR OD UCTOR Y. 

PAGB 

This not a General History of the War, but of Special Inci- 
dents not Heretofore Published — Most of the Actors Gone — 
Whence the Facts Contained in this Volume — Changes Since 
the War — Facts Herein Mostly New — Old Facts used as 
Frames and Canvas; New Facts as Pictures — All Reliable 
— Fabian Policy and Masterly Diplomacy — Written Without 
Prejudice, and from an Historic Standpoint Only .... 21 

CHAPTER n. 

RUNNING THE LAND BLOCKADE. 
KING COTTON BEHIND THE SCENES. 

Meeting of Confederate Congress — Their Acts— President Da- 
vis's Proclamation — President Lincoln's Counter Proclama- 
tion — Second Meeting of Confederate Congress — Message 
and Acts — Third Meeting of Confederate Congress, at Rich- 
mond — Message and Acts — President Buchanan's Adminis- 
tration. — Lincoln Inaugurated President — His Cabinet — Call 
for Troops— Strength of Blockade Squadron — Extra Session 
of United States Congress — Message and Acts — Attempt at 
Liverpool to Break Blockade — English Blockade-Runners — 
New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore Blockade-Runners — 
Business at Wilmington, N. C. — Northern Sympathizers with 
the South — Quotations from Kattell and from Macaulay Ap- 
plied to Condition of United States Government 29 

I aci 



Xii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

ESTABLISHING STATIONS— FIRST TRIP AND FIRST 
PASSENGERS. 

BRAINS AND CAUTION SHIFTING THE SCENES. 

PAGB 

Battle of Gettysburg — The Outsjde and the Inside View of that 
Battle — Things Known Behind the Scenes — Communication 
Between North and South Nearly Closed — Necessity the 
Mother of Invention — President Davis's Plan for Opening 
New Route — How it was Done — Who the Conductors, and 
how Managed — Who Kept Way-stations, and how Paid — 
Guides, Engineers, Brakemen, and how Paid — Depot in 
Washington — Special Agents in Washington, Balrimore, 
Philadelphia, and New York — First Letters by New Line, 
and to Whom — The Baltimore Cotton Ring — The Philadel- 
phia Cotton Ring — The New York Cotton Ring — Heads and 
Directors of Each — Lamb and Waddell First Passengers on 
New Line — Difficulties and Amxusing Incidents of their Trip 
Across the Lines and Through the Confederate States — Their 
Return — Report to Cotton Rings — Results 41 

CHAPTER IV. 

ANOTHER CONDUCTOR ON THE NEW LINE. 
CAUTION SLIDING THE SCENES. 

Colonel Killgore Conductor on New Line — His Former Services 
and Character — His First Service as Conductor — Recognized 
in Baltimore — Alarm, and Happy Termination — Again Rec- 
ognized by One of Baker's Secret Detectives — Shoots Detec- 
tive on the Spot — Serves Till Line Closes — Returns to Charles- 
ton— -Opens Law-Office — One of the First Men of the State . 65 

CHAPTER V. 

NOBILITY AFTER THE NUGGETS. 
DIPLOMACY PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

Cotton and Gold Markets in 1863 — What They Indicated— Great 
Divorce Trial — Arguments on Both Sides — First Confederate 
Loan — By whom Taken — Arrival in New York of Lord Brew- 
erton — His Conference with President McLane — Goes to Bal- 
timore, and whom he Meets — Then on to Washington — Scene 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

FAGB 

in Ben. Beveridge's Saloon — Then to English Embassy — 
Remains with Lord Lyons — Concludes to go South — How he 
Goes — His Disguise — Hiding in Negro Hut — Midnight Ride 
Behind a Blind Mule, in a Two-wheel Dirt Cart — How he 
Gets Through the Union Lines — Arrival in Richmond — Stops 
with President Davis — Grand Ball at Executive Mansion in 
Honor of Lord Brewerton — The Dresses of, and who Present 
— Trip Through Confederate States — His Report to President 
Davis — Returns to Washington — Attends President Lincoln's 
Levee with Confederate Officer — Reports to Philadelphia and 
New York Cotton Rings — Returns to England — Other Eng- 
lish Lords in the Confederate States — Sons of Peers in the 
Confederate Army — All After the Gold Nuggets 71 

CHAPTER VI. 

IN TIGHT PLACES AND OUT. 
SHREWDNESS PULLING THE WIRES. 

Other Incidents in Running the Land Blockade — Mr. Danger- 
field a Passenger — His Strange Experiences — Mr. Willis a 
Passenger, and his Experiences — One of the Conductors Ar- 
rested as a Spy — How he Escapes — Senator Johnson in a Bad 
Fix — How he Got Out — No Ill-will Towards Perpetrators . . 87 

CHAPTER VII. 

PRISONERS, HOW USED AND HOW ABUSED. 
CRAFT AND CRUELTY PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

Bounty Jumpers, by whom and how Encouraged — Richmond 
Diplomacy, and how Put in Practice — Bounty Jumpers Spe- 
cially Well Treated — Treatment of Other Union Prisoners at 
Libby Prison— At Castle Thunder— At Salisbury— At Ander- 
sonville — Related by an Eye-Witness 99 

CHAPTER VIII. 

GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. 

CUNNING AND DUPLICITY PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 
DESTRUCTION IN THE BACKGROUND. 

*' Moseby's Cavalry," how Organized and how Operated — Start- 
ling Facts Never Before Published— Four Persons Bound with 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Chains, and then Burned with Storehouse and Contents — Steal- 
ing of a Horse from Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips — A " Dunk- 
ard" Murdered for his Money — Paymaster Tilletson Gobbled 
Up — Six Union Officers about to be Hung by Moseby's Gue- 
rillas, and how Saved — Three Officers Stripped Naked, and 
Turned Out to Perish — How Rescued — Murder of Cavalry 
Prisoners After Surrender — Grant and Sheridan's Plan of 
Retribution — Terrible Results in 

CHAPTER IX. 

WHAT BECAME OF SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE 

WAR. 

THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 
"we NEBER SEED 'eM ANY MORE." 
Number of Slaves Before the War — Number After — What Be- 
came of them During and After the War — Droves to Texas — 
Shiploads to Brazil and Cuba — How the Trade was Carried 
On — Kidnapping After the War — Northern and Southern 
Consciences 133 

CHAPTER X. 

THE CONFEDERACY AS SEEN FROM WITHIN. 
PRIDE, PASSION, AND WANT IN THE BACKGROUND. 
Suffering in the South During the War, Related by Those who 
were Behind the Scenes — Fair Outside Show Kept Up — Going 
Sixty Miles for One Wagon-load of Provisions — Twenty-Five 
Boxes of Tobacco for One Bag of Coffee — Gambling Saloons "^ 
in Richmond — By whom Frequented, and why — Fortune 
Made on Pins and Needles — Dogs and Cats at a Premium 
— Party Antagonisms — Congressman Shot Dead on Floor of 
House, in Richmond — Jealousies About Appointments — Ter- 
rible Condition of Currency — Five Dollars for a " Drink," 
and Ten for a Breakfast, at " Ballard House," Richmond . 149 

CHAPTER XL 

HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. 
KINDNESS AND POWER (hAND-IN-HAND) BEHIND THE 
SCENES. 
Alexandria, Va., Before and During the War— Its Capture, and 
the Consequences—Military Governor and Provost-Court— 



CONTENTS. XV 

rAGB 

The Organization and Business of the Court — Trial of a Se- 
cessionist for Assault upon a Union Man — Fined Five Hun- 
dred Dollars — Appeal to General McClellan — Remedy Com- 
plete — No Similar Cases Afterwards 159 

CHAPTER XII. 

JUDGE FREESE'S "BAYONET COURT." 
OTHER POWERS, AND HOW EXERCISED. 

Reports in Northern Journals about Court — Nothing for Show, 
All for Necessity — Threats of Assassination — Insults to Of- 
ficers and Sentinels — How Remedied — Arrest of Episcopal 
Clergyman — Conscience not to be Interfered with — Attempt 
to Burn Church— How Prevented — Terrible Cruelty to Slaves 
— Parties Arrested and Tried — Sentence, and its Effect upon 
the Community — Power of Court Recognized — No like Cases 
after that 177 

CHAPTER XIII. 

LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 

PREJUDICE AND SELF-INTEREST PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

The Different Definitions given to the word Loyalty — A Third 
Class Professing Loyalty to Both, but Loyal to Neither — Aptly 
Portrayed by Macaulay — Cases before the Provost-Court — 
Mr. E. for Giving " Aid and Comfort " to the Enemy — Sen- 
tence — Concerts by Hutchinson Family — Forbid by General 
McClellan — Sustained by Judge Freese — Great Excitement — 
The Court Sustained — Loyalty Triumphant 203 

CHAPTER XIV. 

DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING THE RIGHTS OF 
PROPERTY. 

ERROR AND PREJUDICE PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

New Class of Cases before the Court — Abandoned Property — 
How Regarded by Union Men and Secessionists — General 
Montgomery and Judge Freese's Views on this Question — 
Attempt to Take a Piano — Amicable Trial of the Case — De- 
cision of the Court — Confiscation and Sequestration Acts, 
How Construed by the Court — Happy Termination of Case 
and End of like Troubles 223 



XVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. 

A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 
JUSTICE SHIFTING SCENES AND PROMPTING ACTORS. 

PAGB 

Another Class of Cases before the Court — Two Hundred Mill- 
ion Dollars Owed by Southern to Northern Merchants — 
Philadelphia and New York Creditors after Alexandria Debt- 
ors — Debtors in Richmond, Goods in Alexandria — Cases 
taken up by Provost-Court — Rules of Procedure — Principles 
Involved — Decision of the Court — Justice Triumphant . . . 239 

CHAPTER XVI. 

LEGAL TECHNICALITIES IN CONFLICT WITH COMMON 

SENSE. 

ANOTHER ACT IN THE DRAMA — PRIDE ON ONE SIDE AND 
JUSTICE ON THE OTHER PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

Nothing so Uncommon as Common Sense — Cases Illustrative — 
Efforts among Secessionists and Disloyalists to Close the Pro- 
vost-Court — President Lincoln's Answer — Secretary Cam- 
eron's Answer — Applications to Attorney-General Bates and 
Postmaster-General Blair — Conference between President 
Lincoln and Judge Freese — Between Bates, Cameron, and 
Freese— General McClellan Brought in — His Aid-de-Camp 
Calls upon General Montgomery — The Order and Wishes 
of General McClellan — Final Conference between General 
Montgomery and Judge Freese — The Result — How Received 
— What would have been the Results of a Different Policy . 265 

CHAPTER XVII. 

FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 

What the Calculations of Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet were 
at the Opening of Hostilities — How and why they were Mis- 
taken in these Calculations — Facts and Figures from Official 
Documents to Substantiate Statements 281 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

WHY THE SOUTH HAS NOT DENOUNCED THE DEM- 
OCRATIC PARTY. 

What Keeps the Party Alive—What the Final End of this Re- 
public 303 



CONTENTS. XVU 

CHAPTER XIX. 

/fOW COMES IT THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, WITH 
SUCH A WEIGHT OF SIN UPON IT, CAN STILL KEEP 
ALIVE f PACK 

This Question Fully and Fairly Answered 315 

CHAPTER XX. 

FROM ALL YOUR STUDY OF HISTORY, WHAT DEDUC- 
TIONS DO YOU DRAW AS TO THE FINAL DECLINE 
AND FALL, IF SUCH A THING IS EVER TO BE. OF 
THIS REPUBLIC? 

This Question Answered by a Review of the History of Other 
Republics 321 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE SPARTAN REPUBLIC— ITS RISE AND FALL, AND 
WHY. THE ATHENIAN REPUBLIC, AND THE REASON 
OF ITS FALL. THE THEBAN REPUBLIC, AND THE 
CAUSES OF ITS DESTRUCTION. 

These Lessons Applied to the American Republic 331 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC— ITS RISE, GLORY, DECLINE, AND 
FALL, AND THE REASON THEREOF. 

How the Facts of its History may Serve as Lessons to Ourselves 
— Our Immediate Danger, and what the Remedy .... 343 
2* B 



il 




20 



SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION, 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 
EXPLANATIONS AND PLEDGES. 

THE '' History of the Great Rebellion," as some have 
called it, or of " The American Conflict," as others 
have called it, has been written over and over — by Greeley, 
by McClusky, by Abbott, by Kattell, by Pollard, and by 
others — and it is not my intention to write it again : but 
I Purpose, as Macaulay says in the first two words of 
that wonderful History of England in which, by the 
magic of his pen, he has made facts, which, until then, 
had lain only in the brains of old women, in the traditions 
of old men, in forgotten newspapers, and in neglected 
pamphlets, come forth in all the habiliments of life ; some 
grinning with merriment, and others frowning with de- 
spair — some as angels of heaven, and others as demons of 
hell — I Purpose, throughout the whole of this volume, to 
write of the sayings and doings of those who, in the great 
war between the United States and the "Southern Con- 
federacy," stood in the side wings, or behind the scenes, as 
proprietors, as stockholders, as lessees, as stage managers, 
as prompters, as scene-shifters, as curtain- droppers, as 
wire-pullers, and without whom the acts before the scenes 
could not have been, and would not have been, enacted. 
Many, yea, most of those who attended to their various 

31 



22 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

parts behind the scenes, while those in front were attending 
to theirs, have gone to their long homes. Like the hero 
of a hundred battles — 

" They sleep their last sleep and have fought their last battle^ 
No sound can awake them to glory again;" 

yet a few remain, scattered throughout the North, scat- 
tered throughout the South, in cities, in towns, in offices, 
in workshops, in negro huts ; and from these, and such as 
these, we have gathered and now propose to put on record, 
the inner or secret history of the greatest war of the nine- 
teenth century — a war in which more men were engaged, 
more deeds of valor done, more lives lost, and during 
which there was more of masterly diplomacy exercised, 
on both sides, than in any war which has occurred since 
the days of the Roman empire. 

Eighteen years ago ! Only three words, uttered in a 
single breath and seeming but as yesterday, when looking 
backward, and yet where is the tongue that can tell, or 
the pen that can write all that has transpired within that 
time ? 

Fields made desolate by battles then are now waving with 
grain, covered by green swards, or bedecked with flowers ; 
what were then hastily constructed earthworks are now 
grassy mounds, covered over with shrubbery ; what then 
were rifle-pits are now pleasant pathways for man and 
beast; cities then burned, or otherwise made desolate 
through the ravages of war, have regained more than 
their former size, beauty, and commercial prosperity; 
plantations then laid waste have been restored to more 
than their former productiveness; wounds, ghastly, 
bloody wounds, then made by shot or shell, or sabre 
cut, are now so healed that even the cicatrices are scarcely 
observable ; and, but for vacant chairs in many house- 
holds, and too well-filled cemeteries at Arlington Heights, 



INTRODUCTORY. 23 

at Gettysburg, ^nd all over the land, it would be difficult 
for us now to realize that a terrible, desolating war had 
swept over this country within so short a time as eighteen 
years. 

Time is indeed the great leveller, bringing king and 
subject, master and slave, to a common platform ; nor is 
it less the great assuager and healer. Passions which 
burned in the breasts of men with the fierceness of a fur- 
nace, eighteen years ago, have so smouldered and died out, 
that not even a spark can now be found on the hearth- 
stones of their hearts ; and hence it is that what could not 
have been told fifteen, ten, or even five years ago, without 
the risk of inflaming passions and leading to greater 
harm than good, may now be told without the slightest 
objection either from actors or subjects. In history, as in 
law, there are statutes of limitation^ and when these bounds 
are once passed, all that occurred previous to those dates 
is wiped from the record of personal responsibility, and 
becomes the property of the historian. 

Most, if not all, of the facts which I purpose to incor- 
porate in this history will be new — that is, such as have 
never been published before. They have been known, of 
course, to the actors and to a few confidential friends, and 
vague hints of their existence have found their way in 
newspapers from time to time ; but never before have 
they reached the public eye or ear in book form ; nor 
would they now, but for the fact that the limitation of 
responsibility has so far passed, that no possible harm can 
come from their publicity. To make the new facts intel- 
ligible as to time and bearing, old facts will, in some cases, 
have to be repeated, but in all such cases the old facts will 
be but the frames, while the new facts will be the pictures. 

Though we are not at liberty in all cases to give the 
sources of our information, yet no one need question the 
substantial correctness of every statement found in this 



24 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

volume, though it may occasionally happen that names 
have been given incorrectly or misspelled, or that the 
dates are not precise. To remember names and dates is not 
easy for any one, and that, after a lapse of fifteen years, 
some of these should have been partially or entirely for- 
gotten by some of our informants, is not at all strange. 
Of course we can only give the statements as received. 
Most of them we have had direct from the lips of those 
who were participants in the scenes, others from official 
sources, that is, from those who were in, or directly con- 
nected with, governmental departments; others, from hints 
given at the time, but the details of which could not be 
stated until the prejudices and passions of the war had 
subsided ; and still others, from those who had them from 
the lips of the participants. 

Some of the facts and incidents hereafter to be related 
are but new manifestations of the Fabian policy, and 
however unfair they would have seemed to Northern 
people had they been known at the time, yet now, few, 
if any, will regard them other than as acts of masterly di- 
plomacy upon the part of Mr. Davis and his cabinet. But 
for this policy, the Southern Confederacy would have had 
to succumb at least two years before it did ; and, on the 
principle that "while there is life there is hope," the longer 
they could prolong the contest the more to their credit. 
The relative strength of the North and South, at the be- 
ginning of the war, may be fairly represented by the 
numbers 20 and 10, Now take one off from each at five 
successive engagements, and the figures will stand 15 and 
5. Before, the smaller equalled the one-half of the larger 
number, now it equals only the one-third. Again take 
one off from each at four more engagements, and the 
figures will stand 1 1 and i — the smaller representing only 
the one-eleventh part of the larger, while one more en- 
gagement wipes out the smaller nuipber entirely, and yet 



INTRODUCTORY. 2$ 

leaves the one-half of the larger. From this plain math- 
ematical statement it will be seen how important it was 
for the Southern Confederacy to pursue the Fabian policy 
of delay, both as to its operations in the field, and in its 
diplomacy with English and Northern capitalists. 

The learning of these '' Secrets of the Late Rebellion " has 
had the effect to increase, rather than lessen, our admira- 
tion of Jefferson Davis as a statesman, and such we think 
will be the effect upon all who may read this book. How- 
ever much we may condemn his political principles, how- 
ever much we may condemn the rebellion, and however 
rejoiced we may be that he and it failed of success, yet, 
now that we know of the secret as well as the open diffi- 
culties with which he had to contend, we cannot but 
admire the talent, the energy, and the perseverance with 
which he overcame them all for months and years ; and 
at last only yielded to necessities which no foresight, no 
talent, no energy could have overcome. 

Nor is he the only one of the " Lost Cause " whom 
these " Secrets " make us to admire the more. Others, 
many others, as will be seen by the following chapters, 
acted their parts nobly and well, and deserve more credit 
than has ever yet been accorded to them by the historian ; 
while others whose secret fiendish acts are herein recorded, 
acted worse, a thousandfold worse, than the public ever 
knew or probably would have known but for the appear- 
ance of this volume. 

In putting on record the following facts and incidents 
of the war, my aim shall be to view everything from a 
historic standpoint only. As a Northern man, and as a 
late officer in the army, my partisanship and prejudices 
during the war were doubtless as strong as those of any 
other man ; but so far as I know my own heart, not a 
particle of that partisanship or prejudice now remains, 
and I believe that I can write of both sides with equal 
3 



26 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

impartiality. In relating the incidents, I may not have 
occasion to express any opinion at all for or against; 
But if I should, my readers may rest assured that it will 
be done without a particle of prejudice. With these ex- 
planations, and these pledges, I am now ready to begin 
the relation of facts and incidents as they occurred Behind 
tJte Scenes during the late War. J. R. F. 




28 



CHAPTER II. 

RUNNING THE LAND BLOCKADE. 
KING COTTON BEHIND THE SCENES. 

ON the 4th of February, 1861, the Confederate Congress 
met at Montgomery, Ala. It was composed of nine 
delegates from Alabama, three from Florida, ten from 
Georgia, six from Louisiana, seven from Mississippi, three 
from North Carolina, seven from South Carolina — forty- 
five in all. 

They adopted the old Constitution of the United States, 
with the exception of five clauses. The first was a change 
in the preamble — making the States named, other than 
"We the people," the contracting parties; the second 
change related to the ** importation of African negroes," 
etc. ; the third related to the escape and delivery of slaves ; 
the fourth related to adjusting disputes between the con- 
tracting States; the fifth empowered Congress to "lay 
and collect taxes, duties, imposts, etc." The Constitution, 
as amended, was adopted February 8th, and on the same 
day Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was elected President, 
and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President, 
by a unanimous vote. 

On the 18th of February Mr. Davis was inaugurated, 
and immediately after he nominated, and Congress con- 
firmed, the following cabinet : 

Secretary of State... .„ Robert Toombs. 

Secretary of the Treasury C. G. Memminger. 

Secretary of War L. Pope Walker. 

3* 29 

% 



30 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

This same Congress authorized a loan of fifteen million 
dollars, secured by an export duty on cotton, and passed 
an act " To modify the navigation laws, and to repeal all 
discriminating duties on ships and vessels" — by which 
the entire coasting trade from Charleston to Galveston 
was thrown open to the British flag. Had English capi- 
talists framed the law, they could not have made it to 
please themselves better. 

On the 17th of April, 1 861, President Davis issued a proc- 
lamation offering to grant letters of marque and reprisal 
to aid the Southern Confederacy in resisting what he 
called " the wanton and wicked aggressions " of the United 
States government. 

To this President Lincoln immediately responded by 
issuing a proclamation, dated April 19th, declaring the 
Southern ports in a state of blockade. 

The Congress of the Southern Confederacy assembled 
at Montgomery again on the 29th of April, 186 1. Presi- 
dent Davis, in his message, advised the immediate passage 
of a law authorizing the acceptance of proposals for pri- 
vateers. He denounced the proclamation of President 
Lincoln in relation to Southern ports as a mere paper 
blockade. "The loan authorized," he said, "had been 
promptly taken (by whom, or on what terms, he did not 
say) ; and that a much larger amount had now become 
necessary to defray the expenses of the war," etc.. etc. 

This Congress authorized President Davis to issue 
letters of marque and reprisal, and prescribed regulations 
for the conduct of privateers. It also passed an act pro- 
hibiting the export of cotton or cotton yarn from any of 
the Confederate States, except through their own sea- 
ports, under a penalty of forfeiture of the cotton, a fine 
of five thousand dollars, and six months' imprisonment. 
It further proposed that the planters should be invited to 
put their crops into the hands of the government, and 



RUNNING THE LAND BLOCKADE. 3I 

accept Confederate bonds for their value. On the 20th 
of May, 1 86 1, this Congress adjourned, to reassemble at 
Richmond, Va., in two months. 

On the 20th of July, 1861, the Confederate Congress 
reassembled at Richmond. Meanwhile the cabinet had 
been enlarged as follows : 

Secretary of the Navy S. R. Mallory, of Florida. 

Postmaster-General .J. H. Reagan, of Texas. 

Attorney-General J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana. 

This Congress included sixty-eight members, of whom 
fifteen were from Virginia, ten from North Carolina, nine 
from Alabama, three from Florida, ten from Georgia, six 
from Louisiana, seven from Mississippi, eight from South 
Carolina. 

President Davis stated in his message that " fifty million 
dollars had been subscribed in cotton," and that "late 
crops had been abundant." Among the first acts of this 
reassembled Congress was to adopt the convention of 
Paris in 1856, in respect to maritime law, whereby the 
wishes of Great Britain were acceded to in all respects. 
This was, in effect, that enemies* goods should be respected 
in neutral ships, and that privateering should be abolished 
in time of war. The United States government had de- 
murred to these propositions, for reasons ably stated at 
the time by Secretary Marcy, and afterwards reaffirmed 
by Secretary Seward. Had they become a part of national 
law. Great Britain could have taken every bale of cotton 
from the ports of the Southern Confederacy without let 
or hindrance. So far as the Confederacy was concerned, 
this act of their Congress gave full consent; but the 
United States still objected, nor had the propositions been 
concurred in by all other nations. This same Congress 
empowered President Davis to appoint two commissioners, 
with full powers, to proceed to Great Britain and other 



32 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

European countries, to negotiate a recognition of the 
Southern Confederacy, and, if practicable, make treaties 
of commerce. 

Having thus briefly stated the organization, the acts, 
and the position of the Southern Confederacy with regard 
to financial and cotton questions — the only questions now 
under consideration — we will next trace the acts of the 
United States government bearing upon the same ques- 
tions. 

When the Confederate Congress first met at Mont- 
gomery, Mr. Buchanan still occupied the Presidential 
chair at Washington ; but he had done nothing to inter- 
fere with the organization of the Southern Confederacy, 
nor, in his view of the case, had he any power or author- 
ity to interfere. One month after, on the 4th of March, 
1 86 1, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was inaugurated 
President, Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, Vice-President, 
and immediately after the cabinet of Mr. Lincoln was 
formed as follows : 

Secretary of State Wm. H. Seward, of New York. 

Secretary of the Treasury S. P. Chase, of Ohio. 

Secretary of War Simon Cameron, of Penna. 

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells, of Conn. 

Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith, of Ind. 

Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair, of Md. 

Attorney-General Edward Bates, of Mo. 

After the inauguration of President Lincoln, the United 
States Senate remained in session until the 28th of March, 
occupied most of the time with confirmations. 

Immediately after the attack upon Fort Sumter, April 
14th, 1 86 1, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 
troops ; called an extra session of Congress to meet on 
the 4th of July following, and on the 19th of April, as 
heretofore stated, issued a proclamation declaring all the 
Southern ports in a state of blockade. The blockading 

« 




FARRAGUT AT MOBILE. 



34 



;! 



RUNNING THE LAND BLOCKADE. 35 

squadron on the Atlantic coast, on the 4th of July, 1861, 
consisted of twenty-two vessels, with 290 guns and 3300 
men, under command of flag-officer Stringham. The 
Gulf squadron, at the same time, consisted of twenty- 
one vessels, with 282 guns and 35CK) men, under flag-of- 
ficer Mervin. 

This Congress authorized a loan of ;^ 1 70,000,000 ; but 
made no effort at all to negotiate a loan abroad, as it was 
well understood that English capitalists were passively 
hostile to the war, and, so far as they could consistently, 
favored the Southern Confederacy. With them cotton 
was king, and from the first moment of its life the 
Southern Confederacy did what it could to increase the 
love between King Cotton and his British admirers. In- 
deed, it was felt all over the North (and hoped for in the 
South) that there was some danger of European inter- 
ference, since the desire for cotton, the eagerness for free 
trade, and the hope of immediate gain might prompt to 
an interference which the aristocratic element of Great 
Britain, and the friends of despotism in France, would 
have rejoiced to see undertaken. 

Not long after the United States government had given 
notice to other nations of the blockading of Southern 
ports, efforts were made to break or disregard it. Liver- 
pool merchants claimed that, under the treaty between this 
country and Great Britain, they had the right to enter 
any port of the United States, and that the attempt to 
enforce the blockade against British ships was an infringe- 
ment of national law. The English government having 
already recognized the blockade as a belligerent right, 
the British minister in reply told the Liverpool merchants 
that "if any British ship, being a neutral, knowingly 
attempts to break an effective blockade, she is liable to 
capture and condemnation." 

Notwithstanding this notification, scores of British mer- 



36 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

chants resolved to take the risk of running the blockade, 
because of the immense profits to be made therefrom. 
To buy cotton for ten cents, and then sell it for thirty- 
cents, per pound, and then to pay the ten cents in arms, 
accoutrements, and other English manufactured goods, 
on which they could make a profit of at least one hun- 
dred per cent, were opportunities which seldom occurred, 
and which, in their estimation, would justify great risks. 
Nor were British merchants the only ones who took this 
view of the case, as the sequel of this history will show. 
The merchants and other moneyed men of New York, 
Philadelphia, and Baltimore were just as eager for the 
" almighty dollar," and were quite as ready to take risks 
to obtain it. The risk was lessened from the fact that 
the coast to be guarded extended over three thousand 
miles ; that the number of vessels to guard it (heretofore 
given) were but few in proportion to the length of coast; 
and that the Southern Confederacy was as anxious to 
have them bring their goods and take their cotton in 
exchange, as English and Northern merchants were to 
do it. Every Confederate fort and every Confederate 
soldier was ready to render all the aid possible to every 
blockade runner, no matter whether from London, Liver- 
pool, Nassau, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. As 
an evidence of the extent to which trade by blockade 
running was carried on, it has been estimated that the 
amount of ships and cargoes sent in by English capital- 
ists to the one port of Wilmington, N. C, from Janu- 
ary, 1863, to December, 1864, amounted to ;^66,ooo,ooo. 
What, meanwhile, was the extent of trade between Wil- 
mington and other Southern ports with New York, Phila- 
delphia, and Baltimore capitalists is not known, but 
probably as great, if not greater, than with English 
capitalists. 

Another fact, which greatly contributed to blockade 



RUNNING THE LAND BLOCKADE. 37 

running and other clandestine trade, was that all through 
the North there were warm sympathizers with the South 
— some of whom had been born in the South, others had 
relatives and friends there, others had had extensive 
business relations with Southern men, and still others 
sympathized with the South from a political standpoint — 
each and all of whom were ready to help the South in 
any way they could; and yet to save themselves from 
censure, if not from arrest, felt obliged to call themselves 
" Union " men. These men were everywhere, and often 
where least suspected. 

Kattell, in his '* Plistory of the Great Rebellion," in 
writing of the difficulties under which President Lin- 
coln's administration labored for the first few months, 
says : " The diplomatic corps abroad and the incumbents 
of office at the North were most of them inclined to 
thwart the action of the new administration, and in their 
train was a large number of active men on whom the 
government could not depend, if it had no opposition to 
encounter. The new administration found itself thus 
completely in the power of the secession party, and all 
its secrets, from the cabinet debates to the details of 
orders, were known to the South. The bureaus of the 
departments, the judiciary, the army and navy, and the 
offices were all filled with persons who were eagerly 
watching to catch up and transmit every item of informa- 
tion that might aid the Confederates, or thwart the gov- 
ernment." 

The above is true so far as it goes, but it is only a very 
small part of the whole truth — not the one hundredth 
part of what we now know to be true, some parts of which 
will be told in the following pages. 

Macaulay's description of the condition of England, 
immediately preceding the signing of the treaty of Rys- 
wick, portrays the condition of the United States gov- 
4 



38 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

ernment during a portion, if not during the whole time 
of the war, quite as well as if written for the purpose. 
He says : " Her secret enemies had commanded her fleets 
and armies, had ministered at her altars, had taught at 
her universities, had swarmed in her public offices, had 
sat in her Parliament, had bowed and fawned in the bed- 
chamber of her King." The facts and incidents hereafter 
to be related will show, in part, and would show wholly, 
if all were told that is known, that what Macaulay says 
of the condition of England from 1689 to 1697, was no 
less true of the United States from 1861 to 1865. Of 
course, all this inured greatly to the benefit of the South- 
ern Confederacy, but was as greatly detrimental to the 
United States government, and at times made final suc- 
cess seem very doubtful, if not impossible. 



CHAPTER III. 

ESTABLISHING STATIONS— FIRST TRIP AND FIRST 
PASSENGERS. 

BRAINS AND CAUTION SHIFTING THE SCENES. 

THE battle of Gettysburg, fought on the 2d and 
3d of July, 1863, was one of the most important, 
if not the most important, battle of the whole war. The 
conflict had now been going on for over two years with 
varying success. Each side had used its utmost efforts 
for success, and to the general public the end seemed no 
nearer than in the beginning ; but those behind the 
scenes saw things in a different light, and especially was 
this true of President Davis and his cabinet. While he 
and they well understood the advantages of keeping up a 
fair outside show, they knew equally well that the pro- 
portion of strength had greatly changed between the 
North and the South. Commencing with proportions of 
two to one (20 to 10) they had reached the proportions 
of three to one (15 to 5), and another such battle as that 
which had just occurred — in which the losses on both 
sides were immense, and in which both sides thought 
themselves defeated, and were making preparations for 
retreat on the day following — would make the dispropor- 
tion still greater. 

They knew, too, that every day made their situation 
more and more desperate ; that every day increased the 
effectiveness of the blockade; that food, clothing, and all 
the necessaries of life were every day becoming scarcer; 
and while they still had almost any quantity of cotton, 
4* 41 



42 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

they knew the people could not eat that, and unless some 
new source of nutrition for the Confederacy could be 
opened, it must soon succumb from mere exhaustion. 
To add still further to the difficulty, their communication 
with the North seemed about to be cut off entirely. Up 
to that time their letters from their Northern sympa- 
thizers, from England, and from other parts of the world, 
had reached them through blockade-runners, mostly by 
the way of Nassau ; but the recent capture of some of 
these blockade-runners, and the stricter watch now kept 
by the United States blockading squadron, made this 
source look more and more doubtful, and certainly less 
and less reliable. 

Mr. Davis, when United States Senator and when Sec- 
retary of War, had credit for brains and great shrewdness; 
but never did he need them so much as now, and as " ne- 
cessity is the mother of invention," the fact of the need 
called forth from his fertile brain a plan of domestic 
diplomacy which would have done credit to Pitt in his 
palmiest days. However good a conception or plan may 
be, still it is of no use unless it can be put into execution, 
and just here was President Davis's greatest trouble. He 
had scores of officers about him ready to do his slightest 
bidding, but among them all he could think of no one 
exactly fitted for the kind of service he then had in view. 
When in his greatest distress of mind, walking the floor 
for hours at a time, thinking, thinking, thinking, it hap- 
pened that Colonel Ralph Abercrombie, who was in com- 
mand of a Louisiana regiment in General A. P. Hill's 
corps, came into Richmond, and, as was his custom, called 
immediately at the executive mansion. The Colonel had 
been known to Mr. and Mrs. Davis since a boy. Mr. 
Davis, when Secretary of War, had appointed him to a 
lieutenancy in the regular army. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
Davis were on the most intimate terms with his wid- 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 43 

owed mother, and though the Colonel was now about 
thirty years of age, they still called him Ralph. 

When, on this visit, he observed the President's anxiety, 
he naturally inquired the cause, and soon learned from 
Mr. Davis the outlines of his plan. The Colonel at once 
offered his services to put the President's plan into execu- 
tion, only suggesting that, instead of opening the route 
to Washington via Chesapeake Bay and Leonardstown, 
Md., he would prefer a more northern route, for the reason 
that he was better acquainted with the Potomac between 
the Great Falls and Cumberland than with the route pro- 
posed by President Davis. When a lad, he had attended 
St. James' College, near Hagerstown, Md., and, by fre- 
quent drives through the country, had learned every foot 
of ground between that point and Washington city. 

Mr. Davis listened attentively, and when the Colonel 
had finished, he quickly replied that his offer of services 
had relieved his mind of a great anxiety ; that he would 
accept them most gladly; and that he would agree to any 
route upon which the Colonel might fix. He told the 
Colonel, in addition, that he would appoint, to assist him, 
any one whom he might name, and that in opening and 
establishing the route he could employ whoever he 
pleased, and use any amount of funds that might seem 
necessary, as the project involved millions of money, if 
not the very life of the Confederacy ; and that the few 
thousands it might cost would only be as dust in the 
balance, as compared with the advantages to be gained. 

Colonel Abercrombie immediately turned over the com- 
mand of his regiment to Major Charles Hall (the Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel, John H. Black, being on sick leave from a 
wound received at Gettysburg), and entered upon the duty 
of opening this new route to Washington. From Richmond 
to Orange Court-House (General Lee's headquarters) was 
by rail, and involved no difficulty. From thence to the 



44 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Rapidan River, on the southerly side of which lay the Con- 
federate army, and on the northerly side the Union army, 
was easy enough ; but from thence, to first get through 
the Union line of pickets, and then traverse about seventy 
miles of country, until the Potomac was reached at or 
near the Great Falls, about twelve miles above Washing- 
ton, was the tug of war. To establish this latter part of 
the route involved the employment of about twenty men 
— some as guides from point to point; some to furnish 
horses, or other conveyances, to the blockade-runners 
and their passenger guests ; some to entertain and con- 
ceal them whenever they came that way ; some to be on 
the constant lookout, and pass the word from post to 
post, if any danger threatened the blockade-runners or 
any of their employees ; some to row them across the 
Potomac, and meanwhile keep their boats concealed from 
the eyes of Union troops and guards ; and others to pass 
them through safely from the Great Falls to Washington 
and return. The men so employed included planters or 
farmers, doctors, merchants, and day-laborers, all of whom 
received pay for their services from the Confederacy, 
through the hands of Colonel Abercrombie or Colonel Kill- 
gore. Besides these, the guides had under pay three old 
negro women, at whose huts they stopped and concealed 
themselves and guests, whenever occasion required. At 
Great Falls, Messrs. Garrett & Morse, merchants, were the 
principal agents. Upon them depended mainly the keep- 
ing open of the line from that point to Washington city; the 
crossing of the Potomac at or near that point; and to see 
that the guides on the Virginia side of the Potomac were 
always ready for service. At Washington city the grand 
depot, or end of the line, was at Ben Beveridge's saloon, 
and the " Washington House," kept by Ben's mother, at 
the corner of Third Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Ben 
furnished the disguises for both conductors and passengers 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 45 

on this fine, and was always ready to lend a helping 
hand in any way in which his services could be made 
available. His first advance pay for services was two 
thousand dollars in gold, to which additions were made 
from time to time until he received from eight thousand 
to ten thousand dollars, all in gold. All these men were 
in entire sympathy with the Southern Confederacy, and 
nearly all offered their services gratuitously when first 
spoken to on the subject by Colonel Abercrombie ; but his 
plan was to bind every man to greater faithfulness by 
having him to accept pay from the Confederacy, and hence 
he would not accept of gratuitous service from any one. 
How many thousands or tens of thousands of dollars were 
distributed by Colonel Abercrombie and Colonel Kiilgore, 
for the Confederacy, in this service, we are unable to say, 
but certainly a good many. It took about six weeks of 
faithful service for Colonel Abercrombie to open this new 
line, and, when completed, he returned to Richmond and 
reported to President Davis that the line was now ready 
for business. 

Mr. Davis approved of all that had been done, and 
asked Colonel Abercrombie whom he would have as an 
assistant. The Colonel named his personal friend, Colonel 
Newton Kiilgore, who was then on detached service at 
Charleston, S. C. Kiilgore was a graduate of West Point, 
and a Lieutenant in the Topographical Engineer Corps, 
U. S. A., previous to the breaking out of the war. He 
was then about twenty-seven years of age, active, ener- 
getic, wide-awake, and just the man, as Colonel Abercrom- 
bie thought, for such service. Mr. Davis sent for him, and 
after explaining the kind of service to be done, placed 
him upon the duty, and directed him to hold himself in 
constant readiness for orders, which he did from that time 
forth. 
■'"'"The first service, on this new line, required by Presiden 



46 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Davis of Colonel Abercrombie, was to carry eleven letters 
to, and open personal negotiations with, Major Weightman, 
of Washington; George Thomas, John P. Grundy, Alexan- 
der Gibson, of Baltimore ; Dr. Charles Howell, C. C. Pol- 
lard, George J. Piatt, of Philadelphia ; Mr. McLane, Presi- 
dent of the New York Pacific Mail Steamship Company, 
Mr. Waddell, of the same company, and John Lamb and 
Alexander Goldsmith, brokers, of New York city. 

With Major Weightman Mr. Davis had been on most 
intimate terms of friendship for many years. Both were 
Mississippians, both had been in the Mexican war, where 
Major Weightman gained considerable notoriety, was 
badly wounded, returned home, married a rich lady at 
Jackson, Miss, (a Miss Willowby), resigned his commis- 
sion in the regular army, removed to Washington, and from 
thenceforth lived a quiet, retired life in that city. When 
the war broke out between the North and South, Major 
Weightman still continued his residence in Washington 
city, and soon became on most intimate terms with Sec- 
retary Seward and President Lincoln. When rallied about 
his position, he always replied that he was " a Union man," 
and there left it His word was regarded as law, and no 
one questioned him further. Meanwhile, however, all his 
sympathies were with the South, and he was in almost 
constant communication with Mr. Davis. Through him 
Mr. Davis first learned of these other gentlemen to whom 
he now wrote, and with some of whom he had, after learn- 
ing of them, kept up a correspondence. Mr. Davis now 
wanted arms, provisions, clothing, while these gentlemen, 
he knew, wanted cotton, and the object of the present 
letters and negotiations was to exchange the one for the 
other — to the great advantage of the Confederacy, and 
with immense profit to those who might take part in the 
speculation. The Confederacy had taken in exchange (r-^ 
bonds, had taken for taxes, and had otherwise becom' ^.^ 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 4/ 

possession of millions upon millions of dollars' worth of 
cotton. The gentlemen to whom these letters were ad- 
dressed possessed, or could control, millions upon millions 
of dollars in money, and with this money could purchase 
what the South then stood so much in need of — arms, 
food, and clothing. The cotton was greatly needed by 
American and English manufacturers, and could be sold 
at a price five times greater than Mr. Davis would sell it 
to them for. On the goods which they would exchange 
for the cotton, immense profits could be made. The only 
difficulty was in getting the cotton out of the Confederacy, 
or in securing it from destruction while it had to remain 
there. To effect this they must either run the blockade, 
or so cajole President Lincoln, his cabinet, and his gen- 
erals in the field as to secure the cotton whenever the 
Union armies reached the places where the cotton was 
deposited. The risk in all this was considerable, but the 
immense profits to be gained far more than overbalanced 
the risks. 

On reaching Washington, Colonel Abercrombie went 
directly to the house of Major Weightman. The two 
soon after met at Ben Beveridge's, and then and there 
negotiated for a suite of rooms in the ** Washington 
House," to be all the time kept for the agents of, and all 
the while paid for by, the Southern Confederacy. An 
order for two thousand dollars in gold was handed Ben 
Beveridge at once, as an earnest of what he might expect 
if he proved faithful and true. Three days after, Major 
Weightman and Colonel Abercrombie went to Baltimore 
to call upon Mr. George Thomas. After the delivery of 
President Davis's letter, and a general talk over the mat- 
ters to which the letter referred, Mr. Thomas concluded 
to call together a few well known Southern sympathizers 
at a dinner-party next day, when and where the whole 
subject could be thoroughly canvassed. The dinner came 



48 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

off next day. as proposed, and around the table were gath- 
ered the following well-known gentlemen : Mr. George 
Thomas, John P. Grundy, Dr. Leslie Buckler, Alexander 
R.Gibson, Major Weightman, Colonel Abercrombie, James 
Wilson, J. W. Jenkins. The result of this conference was 
entirely in favor of President Davis's wishes. 

Next day Major Weightman and Colonel Abercrombie, 
accompanied by Mr. James Wilson, went to Philadelphia, 
and called at once upon Dr. Charles Howell, then living 
on Rittenhouse Square. After delivery of letters and 
talking over matters somewhat, Dr. Howell, like Mr. 
Thomas, decided to call together at a dinner-party next 
day a few well known Southern sympathizers, when and 
where the whole subject could be thoroughly discussed. 
This was done, and the following gentlemen were present: 
Dr. Charles Howell, C. C. Pollard, George J. Piatt. Philip 
Swift, Charles H. Mason, Jacob Florence, Major Weight- 
man, Colonel Abercrombie, and Messrs McLane, Lamb, 
and Waddell, of the New York Pacific Mail Steamship 
Co., who had been invited by telegraph. Here, too, the 
result of the conference was entirely favorable to Mr. 
Davis's wishes ; but, before a final conclusion of the ne- 
gotiations, it was deemed best that Messrs Lamb and 
Waddell should accompany Colonel Abercrombie back to 
Richmond, see President Davis personally, take a general 
trip through the Confederate States, and, on their return, 
report to an adjourned meeting. Meanwhile, whatever 
funds Mr. Davis might need should be furnished Major 
Weightman, to be deposited by him with Mr. Riggs, the 
banker at Washington, to the credit of the Southern 
Confederacy. 

These arrangements were all satisfactory to Colonel 
Abercrombie except the piloting of Messrs. Lamb and 
Waddell through the Union lines to Richmond. This, 
he feared, would be a difficult, if not an impossible, task. 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 49 

While he recognized the fact that both these gentlemen 
might sit in their Wall Street banking-offices with all the 
dignity of a Sir Josiah Child, or grace a lady's parlor 
with all the urbanity of a Lord Chesterfield, yet he 
feared that when disguised as farmers or day-laborers, 
when required to tug along on foot for several miles at a 
time, and then ride, pell-mell, on horseback for a score 
of miles at a time ; when compelled to sleep in garrets or 
in the loft of a negro-hut ; when required to prevaricate, 
or even to lie, in order to get by a Union sentinel, they 
might not be quite equal to the occasion. The Colonel 
tried to persuade them to go by the way of Nassau, and 
from there run the blockade into Charleston, as he him- 
self had done when he first entered the Confederate 
States ; but the more he tried to persuade them to this 
course, the more determined they were to go with him. 
Over the difficulties and hardships mentioned by the 
Colonel, they only laughed, said they could stand it all, 
that it would be as holiday- sport to them, and that, in a 
day or two, both would meet the Colonel at Ben Bever- 
idge's, in Washington, and from thence make their way 
with him to Richmond. 

The third day after, Messrs. Lamb and Waddell were 
in Washington, and that night, between eleven and twelve 
o'clock, left Beveridge's, en route for Richmond. Ben and 
Weightman accompanied them to a Mr. Thecker's house, 
in Georgetown, where the disguises were to be put on. 
Lamb first placed himself in the hands of the manipu- 
lators. He had been wearing long chin whiskers ; these 
Ben cut off at one fell swoop, leaving his face as bare as 
a child's. Next, his hair was nicked and chopped over, 
as if done with a pair of sheep-shears, in the hands of a 
country bumpkin, instead of by a Broadway barber. Then 
he was stripped of his latest-fashioned coat, vest, and 
pants, and in their place was supplied with a suit which 
5 ^ 



50 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

would have done credit to an ox-team driver. Waddell 
came next. His magnificent beard, covering his entire face, 
was cut clean off, and, in place thereof, two false " mutton- 
chop " side whiskers and a false moustache, both butter- 
nut-color, were put on his face. Next, Ben applied the 
shears to Waddell's head, and pretty soon his hair pre- 
sented the appearance of a country ox driver's. Then 
he, too, was stripped of his Broadway suit, and in a few 
minutes transmogrified into a fat, jolly farmer, or a Cones- 
toga team-driver. The Colonel was already in disguise, 
and had been ever since he left his uniform at Mr. Joseph 
Mix's, about eleven miles within the Confederate lines, 
and now it only required a little touching up, which the 
Colonel did for himself while the others were laughing 
over their own outlandish appearance. 

About one o'clock in the morning all were ready for a 
start. Ben consented to go along until the first guard 
was passed — Major Weightman to wait at Thecker's un- 
til Ben returned. It was the latter part of August, 1863, 
and the nights, just then, were not only very warm, but 
very dark. Ben led the way, Lamb and Waddell fol- 
lowed, and the Colonel served as rear-guard. When Ben, 
who was several hundred yards in advance, reached the 
canal-lock, near which a guard was stationed, he played 
the drunkard, and cursed the lock-tender loud enough 
for the guard to hear. The lock-tender was one of the 
Colonel's men, and in the pay of the Confederacy. He 
knew Ben's voice, and knew, too, that the Colonel was 
not far off Ben told the lock-tender, in a voice loud 
enough for the guard to hear, that he had plenty of 
whiskey and plenty of cigars in his pockets, and wondered 
if the guard would n't like some. The lock-tender thought 
it probable, whereupon Ben staggered off towards the 
guard, flourishing a bottle of whiskey as he went, and cry- 
ing out to the guard, "Don't shoot ! Don't shoot ! " The 







PICKET-DUTY DURING THE WAR. 



62 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 53 

bait took. The guard gave no challenge — allowed Ben 
to approach him — took a good swig of whiskey from Ben's 
bottle — lit a cigar which Ben had handed him — entered into 
a rip-raving-swearing conversation with Ben ; and, while 
all this was going on, the Colonel and his guests slipped 
quietly by, and were a good half-mile beyond the guard 
before Ben bade him good-night. 

A further walk on the tow-path of the Chesapeake and 
Ohio canal, for over two miles, brought the three travel- 
lers to Widow Ennis's farm- and lock-house. She was in 
the pay of the Confederacy ; and within a half-hour from 
the time of reaching there, the three travellers were in the 
saddle, and, accompanied by her son, to bring the horses 
back, on their way to the Great Falls. They rode along at 
a brisk trot, and part of the time the New York gentlemen 
were nearer the ears than the tails of their horses, never- 
theless they managed to hold on, and, after a ride of nine 
miles, reached Hendrickson's, about a half-mile from the 
Falls. Here they dismounted. Joseph took the horses 
back to his mother's stable, while our three travellers 
walked on, about one mile, until they reached the garden- 
fence in the rear of the hotel, which they clambered over, 
or through, and finally got into the back-building of the 
hotel, through a private door. The Colonel knew all the 
points, and Lamb and Waddell had only to follow him to 
secure themselves and him from observance by the Union 
sentinel, whose station was but a little way from the front 
of the hotel. At Hendrickson's they left the main road, 
and followed a by-path until they reached the garden in 
the rear of the hotel. In creeping through the garden- 
fence, Waddell tore his coat badly about the shoulder, 
which distressed him not a little, and for which he was 
heartily laughed at by his companions. Mr. Morse, who 
kept th€ hotel, was soon with his back-door customers, 
5* 



54 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

and certainly no guests ever received a more hearty wel- 
come. 

Great Falls, it may here be said, once for all, is neither 
a town nor a village; but consists of a large three- story 
stone building, used as a hotel for summer visitors, and as 
a private residence in the winter, and a large store-build- 
ing, with numerous out-houses, used for transportation 
purposes — all of which belong to the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal Company ; but were at this time rented, and 
the business carried on by Messrs. Garrett & Morse, the 
former of whom gave more especial attention to the store, 
and the latter to the hotel. Both were Marylanders ; both 
sympathized heartily with the Southern cause, though 
nominally "strong Union men;" both were under the pay 
of the Confederacy ; and both, or as a firm, received from 
the Southern Confederacy, at different times, through the 
hands of Colonels Abercrombie and Killgore, sums in gold 
amounting to between six and eight thousand dollars. 
Both were first-class business men, of high character, 
and, from their love of the Southern cause, would, doubt- 
less, have rendered it all the aid they could had they not 
received one cent of pay ; but such was not the policy of 
President Davis or his agents. They insisted that all who 
aided should be paid, and so long as cotton could be con- 
verted into gold, this was possible, and certainly the true 
policy. 

It was now about three o'clock in the morning, but the 
Colonel would not retire until he had sent for, and con- 
sulted with, Garrett, as to future movements. From him 
the Colonel learned that the line was open, and in good 
working order, that guide No. i would be on hand the 
next night to row them across the Potomac, and conduct 
them to guide No. 2, and that, meanwhile, all three should 
retire, and keep themselves entirely out of sight until the 
following night. The retiring and resting part suited 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 55 

Lamb and Waddell exactly. Both were thoroughly tired 
from their long walk and horseback ride, neither being at 
all used to that kind of exercise. Lamb was then about 
fifty, Waddell about forty years of age ; the first was lean, 
the latter fat ; both knew how to handle gold and green- 
backs, but neither knew how to handle reins or sit a sad- 
dle, especially when on the back of a rough trotting 
country farm-horse. Their feet would slip through the 
stirrups; in descending hill, they would, somehow or 
other, slip from their saddles towards the ears of their 
horses ; and in going up hill it was with difficulty they 
kept from slipping off their saddles towards their horses' 
tails. They knew how to walk Broadway and Wall 
Street with as much grace as a French dancing-master; 
but when it came to walking on the tow-path of a canal, 
to creeping through garden-fences, and such like perform- 
ances, neither of them could do it half as well as a country 
clod-hopper. Bed ! rest ! of course they were ready for 
bed and rest, and the sooner the better ; and, suiting the 
action to the word, both were soon in bed, and snoring 
away for dear life. 

For some cause or other, guide No. I did not put in an 
appearance next night, and our travellers were obliged to 
keep themselves concealed for another day. The follow- 
ing night, however, he came, and between nine and ten 
o'clock the three slipped out of the back-door of the 
hotel, made their way to the boat, which was in waiting 
about a mile up the Potomac, were rowed across by the 
guide, then walked about a mile to a negro-hut, and then 
about three miles more to a farm-house. Here horses 
were procured, and then for about thirty miles, mostly 
through private lanes and pig-paths, through woods and 
over fields, over torn-down fences and through open gates, 
they trudged along until they reached the farm-house of 
Dr. Carrico. It was now nearly daybreak, and our trav- 



$6 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

ellers were thoroughly tired out. The Doctor, who was 
in the pay of the Confederacy, though within the Union 
lines, and nominally a " Union man," received the travel- 
lers with open arms, and in a little while had them safely 
tucked away in bed-chambers, where the eye of no chance 
Union soldier or visitor could see them. 

Here they remained until the next night. Then with 
a new guide (guide No. 2 having returned with the horses) 
they left Dr. Carrico's shortly after nightfall, and, upon 
horses furnished by the Doctor, rode about thirty-two 
miles to the farm and mill of Mr. Henry Budd. In this 
long ride, like the other, most of the way had to be made 
through private roads and pig-paths, as Union forces were 
in all that country, and on the public highways there was 
danger of meeting Union cavalry or infantry, as patrols 
or sentinels, at any moment. It was about three o'clock 
in the morning when they reached Budd's mills. Just 
before reaching there our travellers dismounted, and the 
horses were slipped into Budd's stable, as there was a Union 
sentinel at this mill who could not be passed on horse- 
back, and with whom some diplomacy had to be used to 
get by at all. To effect this, the Colonel, Lamb, and 
Waddell approached as near the mill as possible, and 
then secreted themselves, while the guide (No. 3) went 
forward to interest the sentinel in conversation, until 
they could slip by. The guide knew everybody in that 
neighborhood, and fortunately, knew the sentinel, so that 
with lively conversation, and an occasional drink from a 
well-filled canteen, he soon had the sentinel so engrossed 
that the three travellers stepped across the mill-race, 
slipped around on the other side of the mill, and soon 
were a good half-mile beyond the sentinel. Here they 
waited in a woods for their guide to come up. He, on 
the plea that he was going to see an "uncle" on the other 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 57 

side, got away from the sentinel erelong, and soon after 
overtook the three travellers. 

From the point where the guide rejoined them, all four 
walked to the farm-house of Mr. Jonathan Brisco, about 
four miles from Budd's mill. Here a Union sentinel had 
been placed as a safeguard, while easterly and westerly 
from the house, sentinels were placed only a little way 
apart. This was the extreme outer line of the Union 
army, and was guarded, of course, with extra vigilance. 
If once through this line our travellers thenceforth would 
be within the lines of the Confederate army and entirely 
safe, but just how to get through was now the problem 
to be solved. The plan resolved upon was that Colonel 
Abercrombie, Lamb, and Waddell should remain concealed 
some distance from the house, while the guide should go 
forward and make arrangements with the sentinel to allow 
the three to come up and go into the house to see his 
"uncle," and then, while he interested the guard with 
lively conversation and occasional drinks of whiskey, the 
three to slip out of the back-door, down through the 
garden, over a meadow, through a creek, and as far and 
as fast as possible in the pines beyond. The plan all 
worked like a charm, except that while the three were 
making their way from the house the sentinel chanced 
to observe them. He at once asked the guide what it 
meant. The guide reph'ed that they were going to another 
neighbor's house, a little beyond, to see about some corn, 
and would soon return to remain the balance of the night 
with his " uncle." The sentinel still seemed troubled about 
having let the three men pass his post, and the guide, see- 
ing this, and wanting to keep in the good graces of the 
Union sentinel, as he might need his services again, slipped 
fifty dollars in gold (which the Colonel had handed him 
for the purpose) into the sentinel's hand, which at once 
eased his mind and made everything seem exactly right. 



58 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

From this point the three travellers walked about six 
miles to Mr. Andrew Mitchell's. Here they procured 
horses, mounted at once, and rode thirteen miles, to Mr. 
Walter Randolph's, near a railroad station called China 
Grove, about ten miles north-easterly from Orange Court- 
House. Probably no three travellers ever rejoiced more 
over the completion of a trip than these three on reach- 
ing China Grove station. They were now among friends, 
and from this point they could go by railroad to Rich- 
mond. The Colonel soon doffed his disguise, and was 
again in the uniform he had left there when on his way 
to Washington. Messrs. Lamb and Waddell could not 
procure new suits until they reached Richmond, and 
therefore had to content themselves with the old until 
then. About ten o'clock the cars came along, our three 
travellers jumped aboard, and within an hour were at 
Orange Court-House, seated around the best breakfast 
that mine host of Freeman's Hotel could get up. At 
two p. M. they took the cars for Richmond, and before 
nightfall were at the Spottsylvania Hotel, in the capital 
of the Southern Confederacy. 

Next morning early, Messrs. Lamb and Waddell were 
in quest of new suits, which they obtained from a ready- 
made clothing-store, not far from the hotel. Next, they 
went to Mowrey's banking-house to exchange some of 
their gold for Confederate notes, which at that time was 
exchangeable at the rate of eight dollars in Confederate 
notes for one dollar in gold. Then they returned to the 
hotel, and soon after were introduced to President Davis's 
private secretary, N. Burton Harris, Esq. He took them 
to the Executive Mansion and introduced them to Mr. 
Davis. With him they had a long conference on busi- 
ness affairs, after which he introduced them to and put 
them in special care of certain prominent gentlemen at 
the capital, whose duty and pleasure it would be to give 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 59 

them such additional information as they might need, 
and accompany them to such other cities of the Confed- 
eracy as they might desire to visit. The Colonel called 
upon the President the same evening, made a full report 
of all that he had seen and heard and done while at the 
North, and then left to visit his regiment, which lay near 
Gordonsville. 

Messrs. Lamb and Waddell, after spending a few more 
days in and about Richmond, seeing what was to be seen 
and learning what was to be learned, left for Newbern, 
Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and other 
places where Confederate cotton was in store. At all 
these points they found immense quantities of cotton, 
some of which they were told had been seven years gath- 
ered, and held meanwhile for better prices. At each 
place they found government agents, and others, who 
assured them that the cotton could be got through the 
blockade, if they only had ships on which to load it. 

They saw, too, at every place they visited, a determined 
spirit on the part of the people never to give over the 
struggle, until their separation was achieved. Of course 
they did not see, and great care was taken that they 
should not see, anything Hke destitution among the 
people. The tables which they saw were all well spread, 
though it took the last loaf of bread from the pantry or 
the last pickle from the jar. It was a part of the mas- 
terly diplomacy of President Davis, and of those who 
surrounded and upheld his hands, never to show a want, 
or cry peccavi, where a Northern ear could see the one or 
hear the other. " Not one cent for tribute, but millions 
for defence," was their cry from first to last, — was their 
cry, indeed, until, when the ^g^ was finally broken, 
nothing was found but an empty shell. 

Having finished their journey through the States of the 
Confederacy, occupying between two and three weeks. 



6o SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Messrs Lamb and Waddell returned to Richmond and 
reported to President Davis that they were entirely sat- 
isfied with what they had seen and heard, and that, so 
sogn as they could report the facts to Messrs McLane, 
Thomas, Howell, and others, there would be no difficulty 
whatever in his obtaining all the money and all the sup- 
plies he might at any time need in exchange for cotton. 
Colonel Abercrombie was then telegraphed for, and on 
the day following reported at the Executive Mansion. 
From the President he received full instructions as to 
further operations. He then informed Messrs Lamb and 
Waddell that he was now ready to conduct them back to 
Washington. Next day they started by rail for China 
Grove station. Here, at Mr. Randolph's, they exchanged 
uniform and fashionable suits for their former disguises, 
and from thence traversed about the same route, rode and 
walked about the same distances, met with about the same 
incidents as when on the outward trip, until they finally 
reached Ben Beveridge's in Washington city. Here they 
met Major Weightman and informed him of all they had 
seen and learned. Then on to Baltimore, where they 
called upon, and reported to, Mr. Thomas and his asso- 
ciates. From this point the Colonel returned to Wash- 
ington, while Messrs Lamb and Waddell went on to Phil- 
adelphia, where they reported to Dr. Howell and his as- 
sociates ; and then to New York, where they reported to 
Mr. McLane and others. All to whom they reported 
expressed entire satisfaction as to the result of their trip, 
and were ready to invest in the enterprise to the extent 
of their means. Not long after, a general meeting of all 
the " cotton ring " associates was held at Dr. Howell's, in 
Philadelphia, when plans were perfected to charter or 
purchase ships to send to Newbern, North Carolina, to 
be freighted with needed articles outward and cotton in- 
ward. It so happened that three of their vessels were 



ESTABLISHING STATIONS. 6l 

seized by the blockading squadron, not many weeks after, 
and this for a time threw a cloud over their enterprise ; 
but so soon as the loss was reported to Mr. Davis he gave 
them enough additional cotton to make up for the loss 
of the three vessels and their cargoes. From thenceforth 
they met with but few, if any, losses, though they con- 
tinued operations, at various points along the coast, until 
the fall of Fort Fisher, on the 15th of January, 1865. 
How much the " ring " made in their cotton operations 
it would be impossible to say ; but we have it from an 
intimate friend of Mr. Gilmore Meredith's, of Baltimore, 
that his share of the profits amounted to a " million of 
money," and if his share reached that amount, others, 
whose investments were far greater, must have reaped 
still larger amounts. 

This cotton ring, made up of the gentlemen whom we 
have heretofore named as seated around the dinner-tables 
of Messrs. Thomas and Howell (besides Messrs. Gilmore 
Meredith, of Baltimore, Samuel Harding, Alphonso Lip- 
pincott, and Alexander Goldsmith, of New York), must 
not be confounded with the one, or more, mentioned by 
General L. C. Baker, chief of the national detective po- 
lice, in his letter of January 30, 1865, to Hon. E. B. Wash- 
burne, chairman of committee on commerce, in which the 
names of Thurlow Weed, Ward Lamon, Leonard I. Sweat, 
Wm. P. Dole, D. Randolph Martin, B. F. Camp, Prescott 
Smith, A. H. Lazare, H. A. Risley, T. C. Durant, Samuel 
Norris, and Simeon Draper, occur as playing principal 
parts. 

These last named gentlemen were nearly all avowed 
Republicans, and several of them personal and intimate 
friends of President Lincoln and Secretary Seward. The 
others were mostly avowed Southern sympathizers (though 
nominally " Union men "), and some of them had long 
known, and been on most intimate personal terms with, 
6 



62 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

President Davis, besides having friends and relatives scat- 
tered all over the South. The one had no object but to 
make the almighty dollar. The other had friendship, as 
well as the almighty dollar, as a basis for action. Which 
of the two is most to be commended, or most to be con- 
demned, each reader must decide for himself. 

And before closing this chapter we again beg to say — 
as stated in the introductory chapter — that, while vouch- 
ing for facts, we cannot in every instance vouch for the 
names and dates given throughout this volume. Our in- 
formants in every case meant to give us exact names and 
exact dates; but the many years elapsing between the 
events and the relating of them to us, had caused a par- 
tial forgetting of names and dates, although the incidents 
remained as fresh in the minds of the relators as though 
they had occurred but the day before. In second and all 
subsequent editions of this work, these errors (if such 
there be) will stand corrected, for so soon as this work 
gets before the public, errors, if any there be, will doubt- 
less be observed and corrected by such as were, or are, 
cognizant of the facts. The author most earnestly invites 
such corrections, or any others that may be found in the 
work, as his aim from the first has been to "set down 
naught in malice," nor to say anything of anybody, or in 
the relating of any event, but what is strictly true. 




64 



CHAPTER IV. 

ANOTHER CONDUCTOR ON THE NEW LINE. 
CAUTION SLIDING THE SCENES. 

IN the preceding chapter, mention is made of the fact 
that President Davis placed Colonel Newton Killgore 
on this same service ; and in the same paragraph a brief 
account is given of his accomplishments, and the position 
he held in the United States army previous to the war. 
In this chapter we purpose to give a bird's-eye view of 
his services as conductor on this new line, for running the 
land blockade. 

Not long after the time when Colonel Abercrombie had 
started on his first trip for Washington, President Davis 
sent for Colonel Killgore, and desired him to carry an 
order for arms and ammunition to Major Weightman, of 
Washington. He was directed, however, to await, at 
China Grove station. Colonel Abercrombie's return to 
that point, and then to go on or return to Richmond, 
according as the negotiation of Colonel Abercrombie had 
been successful or otherwise. Accordingly, when Messrs. 
Abercrombie, Lamb, and Waddell reached Mr. Randolph's, 
they found Colonel Killgore awaiting them. A consulta- 
tion resulted in sending him forward on his mission with 
all convenient speed. 

His general route was the same as that over which our 
three travellers had just passed; his stopping places the 
same ; his guides the same ; and in due time he found 
himself in the rooms of the Confederacy at Ben Bever- 
idge's. Ben sent for Major Weightman. To him Col- 
6* E 65 



(i6 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

onel Killgore delivered his orders, letters, and verbal mes- 
sages ; received from the Major whatever of information 
and messages he had to send to President Davis, and 
within six hours was ready to start on his return trip for 
Richmond. He returned as he went, and within five days 
from the time of leaving Washington stood in the pres- 
ence of Mr. Davis, ready to give an account of his mis- 
sion. Everything had been done to the entire satisfac- 
tion of the President, and the Colonel was directed to 
hold himself in constant readiness for like orders. 

After this, Colonel Killgore made frequent trips between 
Richmond and Washington. Of course he wore a dis- 
guise, and acted the part of a green country bumpkin : 
and so well did he wear the one, and assume the other, 
that never, but on two occasions, did he meet with inci- 
dents worthy of special record. 

The first of these occurred as follows: After delivering 
messages and documents to Major Weightman, he pro- 
ceeded to Baltimore, to deliver others to Mr. Thomas. 
While at the Fountain Hotel it chanced that his false 
moustache became loose, or somewhat disarranged. He 
stepped before a mirror, in the public reading-room, to 
readjust it, and, while doing so, observed a gentleman 
watching him very closely. Leaving that hotel instantly, 
he went to Barnum's, but was scarcely there before he 
noticed the same gentleman, who had watched him in 
the other hotel, again eyeing him closely. Soon the gen- 
tleman stepped up to him, and called him by his first 
name. The Colonel immediately recognized him as an 
old army friend, whom he had not seen for many years, 
and whom he had little thought to meet there, and under 
such circumstances. The gentleman was a Southerner ; 
recognized, and entirely approved of the Colonel's new 
position as Ambassador Extraordinary between high con- 
tracting parties; and in a little while after they were 



II 



ANOTHER CONDUCTOR ON THE NEW LINE. 6/ 

drinking the health of each other, and confusion to their 
enemies. The Colonel at first feared that one of Baker's 
detectives had discovered his disguise while he was ar- 
ranging his moustache, as before related, and felt not a 
little relieved when his observer turned out to be a friend 
instead of an enemy. He never again adjusted his false 
moustache- in the reading-room of a hotel. 

The other incident occurred as follows : He had been 
to Washington, and was on his return to Richmond. 
Crossing the Potomac, at a point above the Great Falls, 
he was accosted by a man on the Virginia side, who 
wanted to know where he had come from, and where he 
was going? Colonel Killgore replied that he lived in 
Maryland, not far from the Falls, and was on his way to 
visit a friend on the Virginia side. Other conversation 
followed, until the Colonel thought his questioner was 
satisfied, though he meanwhile had fully made up his 
mind that his questioner was none other than one of 
General Baker's secret detectives. The Colonel finally 
bade his questioner good-bye, and started to leave, when 
his questioner cried out, "Stop! I believe you are a spy 
— you are my prisoner ! " " No, I am not ! " answered 
Colonel Killgore, and instantly sent a bullet whizzing 
into the brain of his questioner. The man fell, and died 
at once. An examination of the papers upon his person 
proved him to be, as the Colonel had suspected, one 
of the captains of General Baker's National Detective 
force. His body was left precisely where it fell, while 
Colonel Killgore proceeded on his journey, and in due 
time arrived in Richmond. When the body of the cap- 
tain was found, some days after, it was discovered that 
a bullet had pierced his brain ; but it was not known then, 
nor, except to a very few, was it ever known afterwards, 
who sent it there. This is the first publication of the real 
facts of the case, though the newspapers of the time 



68 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

were full of suppositions, not one of which was true, or 
anywhere near true. 

Colonel Killgore continued one of the conductors on 
this line until the line was closed. After the war he re- 
turned to Charleston, studied law, was admitted to prac- 
tice, and when last heard from was doing a large and 
successful business, and was regarded as among the first 
men of the State. 




70 



CHAPTER V. 

NOBILITY AFTER THE NUGGETS. 
DIPLOMACY PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

IN September, 1863, cotton was quoted in New York 
city at 70 cents, gold at $\.2(^. The first indicated the 
great want for cotton by the manufacturers of this coun- 
try, of England, and of other parts of the world. The 
second indicated the want of confidence, then existing, 
among the moneyed men of the world in the stability of 
this government. 

The great divorce trial then going on in the court of 
last resort — the Court of Arms — in which the South, as 
representing the wife, was complainant, and the North, as 
representing the husband, was defendant, had thus far 
been attended with varied success. In the first contest, 
at Fort Sumter, the wife spit fire at the husband, and the 
husband quickly succumbed. In the second contest, at 
Bull Run, the wife flew at the husband's eyes and ears, 
and he, to save both, ran back to Washington. In the 
next, General Lyon, on behalf of the father, made a dash 
at General Price, at Booneville, Mo., when the latter sud- 
denly remembered that he was needed elsewhere and 
left without ceremony. In Western Virginia, General 
McClellan sprang for the scalp of General Garnett, when 
the latter concluded that some point nearer Richmond 
would be more healthy. And thus the trial had been 
dragging its slow length along, sometimes favorable to the 
complainant and sometimes to the defendant, up to the 
time mentioned at the opening of this chapter. 

71 



72 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Meanwhile the children on both sides only seemed the 
more determined to win finally, the oftener they were de- 
feated temporarily ; and criminations and recriminations 
became harsher and fiercer on both sides. The children 
of the North sided with the father, and claimed that the 
letter of the original contract must be kept; that in that 
contract there was no provision for divorce, nor was it ad- 
missible now. The children of the South sided with the 
mother, and claimed that the father had ill-treated the 
mother, had outgrown the mother, because of advantages 
taken of her, and by every law, human and divine, she 
was entitled to a divorce. The children of the North 
claimed that even if a legal divorce was possible, an 
equitable division of the estate was impossible. That a 
considerable portion of the estate had been purchased 
with blood, or treasure, or both, since marriage, and 
was so located that division was impossible ; that Texas, 
California, and New Mexico had cost thousands of lives 
and one hundred and thirty-five millions of dollars, and 
could not now be divided ; that Louisiana and the free 
navigation of the Mississippi River had cost fifteen millions 
of dollars, and could not now be divided ; that Florida had 
been purchased of Spain at a cost of six million dollars, and 
that it had cost twenty-five millions more to get the Semi- 
nole Indians out of its swamps, and that it could not now be 
divided. To all this the children of the South replied, that 
not only what the mother had brought to the estate, but all 
that had been since obtained, contiguous to that which she 
had before marriage, belonged of right to her and her 
alone, and that they would maintain her in this right against 
all comers. The children of the North further complained 
that over three millions of the children of the common 
household were held in bondage by Southern masters, and 
that they must be liberated ere we could hope to have 
permanent peace at home, or the respect of nations 



NOBILITY AFTER THE NUGGETS. 73 

abroad. The children of the South replied that those 
held in bondage were the descendants of Ham, whom Noah, 
with God's approval, assigned to perpetual bondage to 
the sons of Shem and Japhet. To this the children of 
the North replied that the New Dispensation of Christ, 
teaching forgiveness to all, kindness to all, love to all, 
had done away with the Old Dispensation of " an eye for 
an eye and a tooth for a tooth," and that the command, 
** Come unto me all ye ends of the earth,*' included the 
black man no less than the white. The children of the 
South replied that they had not brought slavery into the 
family, nor would they drive it out, and if others of the 
household attempted to do so, they would maintain it; 
and thus, too, this question stood up to the time men- 
tioned in the opening of this chapter. 

In the second chapter of this work we mentioned the 
fact that among the first acts of the first Confederate 
Congress was the authorizing of a loan of ;^ 1 5 ,000,000. 
Also, the fact that, at a subsequent meeting of the Con- 
gress at Richmond, President Davis stated in his mes- 
sage that " ;^ 5 0,000,000 had been subscribed in cotton." 
In neither case was it officially stated who had subscribed 
for these loans, but there is scarcely a doubt that much 
the larger part was subscribed by British capitalists, 
English manufacturers wanted the cotton ; English capi- 
talists wanted a profitable investment for their surplus 
funds; the sympathies of the English nobility and of the 
upper classes generally were then almost wholly with the 
Southern Confederacy ; they believed, as Europeans gen- 
erally believed then, that the South would succeed in es- 
tablishing a separate government; that, whether they 
succeeded or not, the English government would so far 
interfere as to secure the getting of any cotton which 
English manufacturers and English capitalists might pur- 
chase of the Confederacy ; and, under all these circum- 
7 



74 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Stances, it is not at all surprising that a large part of the 
sixty-five millions named should have been subscribed 
for by British subjects ; nor is it surprising that after they 
had thus subscribed, and in some cases paid their money 
in advance by cashing Confederate bonds, they should 
have used extraordinary means — strange and eventful 
means — to secure the cotion. 

Having thus made the* frame and stretched on it the 
canvas, we are now ready to paint the picture, and, when 
finished, it will, we think, fully justify the caption given 
to this chapter, "Nobility after the Nuggets" — 
" Diplomacy Prompting the Actors!' 

In the latter part of September, 1863, Lord John Brew- 
erton arrived in the city of New York direct from Lon- 
don. So soon as the steamer in which he came arrived 
at the wharf, he directed his valet to have his baggage 
taken to the Astor House, while he, taking the first cab 
he found at the landing, directed the driver to drive him 
with all possible speed to the office of the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company, 88 Wall Street. On reaching the 
office he inquired for the president of the company, Mr. 
Allan McLane, found him in, and for the next two hours 
was closeted with him. That same evening Mr. McLane 
called upon Lord Brewerton at the Astor House, dined 
with him, and again spent several hours with him in close 
and confidential conversation — mostly with regard to the 
Southern Confederacy. 

The two following days Lord Brewerton spent in New 
York attending to various business matters, and on the 
third day he and Mr. McLane went together to Baltimore. 
At Philadelphia Mr. C. C Pollard joined them. At Bal- 
timore they met Colonel Ralph Abercrombie, who chanced 
to be in Washington at the time, and who had been tele- 
graphed for, through Major Weightman, to meet them at 
Baltimore. That night and the following day were spent 



NOBILITY AFTER THE NUGGETS. 75 

in consultations with Messrs. Thomas, Grundy, Wilson, 
and others. In the evening McLane and Pollard returned 
to New York, while Lord Brewerton and Colonel Aber- 
crombie went to Washington. They walked from the 
depot direct to Ben Beveridge's, where a scene occurred 
which is difficult to put upon canvas — a scene much easier 
imagined than described. When the two came into the 
saloon Ben was absorbed in conversation with some gen- 
tlemen, and did not see them enter. The Colonel, desir- 
ing to attract Ben's attention without calling upon him- 
self the attention of others, stepped up to the bar and 
asked for " Bourben whiskey," putting special emphasis 
on the word Bourben, as this was the Confederate pass- 
word which had been agreed upon between him amd Ben. 
The clerk behind the bar sat a bottle of Bourbon whiskey 
upon the marble counter for the Colonel to help himself; 
but still Ben did not come up, and kept on chatting and 
laughing with his friends. The Colonel, determining to 
attract his attention, put the glass to his lips, and then, 
with an oath loud enough to wake the dead, smashed the 
glass into a thousand pieces on the marble counter, and 
declared that such BOURBEN as that was not fit for a 
dog to drink. Of course, Ben rushed to the counter to 
see who had dared commit such an outrage in his saloon ; 
the Lord shrank back aghast, as though an earthquake 
was about to open under his feet; some Indians who 
chanced to be in the saloon at the time became very 
much excited and seemed about to raise a war-whoop, 
and, for a moment, confusion worse confounded prevailed ; 
bot so soon as Ben recognized the Colonel he compre- 
hended the whole situation, acknowledged that his clerk 
had made a mistake in setting out some other bottle than 
" Bourben," made a thousand apologies for the mistake, 
and then, in a tone as mild as that of a sucking-dove, in- 
vited the Colonel and his friend " John " into a side room. 



76 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

where they might take a drink alone by themselves. The 
outsiders had been completely hoodwinked, while the in- 
siders had a hearty laugh all to themselves over the inci- 
dent and its happy ending. Major Weightman was then 
sent for, and when he came he and Lord Brewerton had 
a conference of some hours. When this had ended, a cab 
was called, and Lord Brewerton was driven direct to the 
residence of the British Minister, Lord Lyons, while the 
Colonel was driven to his sister's (Mrs. Professor Joseph 
H. Saxton), on Capitol Hill. 

Lord Brewerton remained with Lord Lyons some days, 
and then returned to New York, with the expectation of 
returning at once to England ; but, on reaching there, he 
found a.cablegram awaiting him which required his im- 
mediate return to Washington to see Lord Lyons, and, 
if possible, to make his way from thence to Richmond, 
to see President Davis. He accordingly returned next 
day to Washington, saw the British Minister, saw Colonel 
Abercrombie, and finally succeeded in making arrange- 
ments with the latter for an overland trip to Richmond. 
The Colonel explained to him the hardships which he 
would have to endure in making the trip overland, and 
tried hard to persuade him to return to New York and 
go by the way of Nassau ; but Lord Brewerton insisted 
that he could stand the hardships* and would much prefer 
it to a trip by sea. He was at this time about fifty years 
of age, a gentleman of high mental culture, of elegant 
manners, had spent all his life in the very highest walks 
of society, and had not probably ever endured one hour 
of real hardship; but his health was good, and he thought 
he would rather enjoy, than otherwise, the hardships of 
which the Colonel spoke. At all events, he insisted upon 
trying it, and so the matter was finally agreed upon. 

Next night, about ten o'clock. Major Weightman and 
Colonel Abercrombie left Ben Beveridge's saloon in a 



NOBILITY AFTET. THE NUGGETS. 77 

close carriage ; called at the English embassy for Lord 
Brewerton ; then on to Thecker's, in Georgetown, where 
Ben was waiting with the disguises. Here, under Ben's 
skilful hands, Lord Brewerton underwent a complete 
transmogrification. His mutton-chop whiskers were cut 
• off; his hair chipped and hacked as though done with a 
broad-axe ; his fashionable suit laid aside, and a rough 
farmer's suit substituted; in place of his fine patent 
leather boots, a pair of negro clodhoppers were put upon 
his feet; in place of his fine beaver, a coarse slouch hat; 
all of which my lord enjoyed and laughed over as heartily 
as the others. The Colonel being in disguise already, it 
only took a rub or two here, and a scrape or two there, 
to make him ready for the trip. 

By midnight all were ready. As before, in the case of 
Lamb and Waddell, Ben led the way, and, by playing 
drunk, and treating the sentinel with whiskey and cigars, 
got them safely by the first post. From there they 
walked about two miles to Widow Ennis* farm-house; 
thence rode to Hendrickson's, nine miles; thence walked 
to the Falls, one mile. Here Garrett and Morse received 
them with open arms, and furnished such refreshments as 
were needed. Mrs. Morse seemed specially impressed at 
the presence of a live lord, and honored the occasion by 
putting on her best silk dress before coming down-stairs 
to be introduced. The guide was in waiting, and within 
two hours all three left their friends to cross the Potomac. 
To reach the place where the boat for crossing had been 
concealed required a walk of about two miles; and, when 
across, it required a walk of another mile to reach the 
negro hut of old "Aunt Rachel." It was now so near 
daylight that the Colonel deemed it unsafe to go further, 
so that all that day the three remained concealed in Aunt 
Rachel's humble quarters. They could not venture out- 
side the door even for a moment, and at times the lor< 
7* 



78 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

seemed in great distress at such close confinement ; but 
the day wore away at last, and soon after nightfall the 
three walked about four miles to Mr. Francis Latimer's. 
Here the Colonel had expected to get saddle-horses, as 
before, but the horses were away, and nothing remained 
in the shape of a conveyance but an old mule, blind in 
one eye, and a two-wheel dirt-cart. After some consul- 
tation and delay, it was decided to take these, and in a 
little while after the blind mule and two-wheeled cart, 
with an old darkey, " Uncle Jarrett," as driver, stood 
before the door. Some straw had been thrown in the 
cart, on which our travellers might lay ; but Mr. Latimer 
thought this beneath the dignity of a live lord, and there- 
fore had an old splint-bottom chair set in the cart, on 
which the lord might sit, while the Colonel could lay 
upon the straw at his side. 

The night was very dark, besides which the age and 
blindness of the mule made him to stumble frequently. 
They had not gone half a mile before Lord Brewerton 
found that his seat was a very uncertain and a very un- 
comfortable one. Down would go one of the wheels 
into a deep rut. " Ha ! hi ! be careful, my man ! be 
careful ! What a bloody road this is, to be sure ! " the 
lord would cry out. On a little farther, and down would 
go the other wheel into a deep rut. " Ho ! ha ! hi ! here 
we go over, to be sure ! Be careful, my good man ; be 
careful ! Why, Colonel, I never saw such bloody roads 
in all my life. Do they ever work them ? " " Yes, some- 
times," the Colonel replied, as sober as a judge, though 
almost dying from suppressed laughter. Indeed such 
a scene would have made a dog laugh, and surely the 
blind old mule would have laughed outright could he 
have laughed at all. The Colonel, lying upon the straw 
on the bottom of the cart, felt no fear at all when it sidled 
over; but Lord Brewerton, on the chair, was indeed in 



NOBILITY AFTER THE NUGGETS. 79 

danger of being spilled out every time the cart made a 
sudden lurch. A little farther and one of the wheels 
strikes and passes over a good sized stone. " Ha ! hi ! 
he ! here we go sure this time ! Be careful, my dear 
man, be careful ! And did you ever see such a bloody 
road in all your life, Colonel ? Are you sure, my dear 
man, that you are in the road ? " 

" Yes, massa, I 'se sure. I knows 'em well. I'setrabelled 
dis road many times, massa," replied old Jarrett ; and then, 
turning to his mule, said, " Git along, Jack, git along ! Lift 
yer feet high, Jack; lift yer feet high ! Git up, git along, 
Jack ! " And thus for full two miles they trudged along, 
the lord in danger every five minutes of being thrown 
over the wheels, and calling everything ** bloody ! bloody ! 
bloody !" while the Colonel could not help occasional 
outbursts of laughter, though all the while trying to sup- 
press it, out of respect for the feelings of Lord John. 

At length Lord Brewerton's patience gave way entirely, 
when he seized the old chair and hurled it from the cart, 
and then laid down in the straw beside the Colonel. The 
other six miles, to Wilson's mill, were made without any 
incident worthy of record. 

Old Aunt Rachel's negro hut was probably the first in 
Virginia that ever gave shelter for a whole day to a live 
lord ; and it is safe to say that no live lord ever rode 
behind a blinder mule, in a more rickety cart, or with a 
safer driver, than Lord Brewerton did that night. To 
show his appreciation of treats so rare, we may add, that 
before leaving Aunt Rachel he handed her two twenty- 
dollar gold pieces, and before bidding Uncle Jarrett good- 
bye, he made him happy for life by handing him five 
twenty-dollar gold pieces. 

•' God bleas you, massa, God bless you ! " was all the 
answer either of them could make to such unexpected 



80 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

generosity ; but this, to one whose nature was nobler than 
his blood, was quite sufficient. 

At Wilson's they procured horses, and rode about eight 
miles to a grove. There they dismounted, as it was danger- 
ous to travel the public road farther, and sending the horses 
back with the guide, the two trudged along on foot, over 
fields and through by-paths for about five miles, until they 
reached Mr. Joseph Berry's. Here they stayed all day, and at 
night rode on horseback, about seventeen miles, to Mr. Fred- 
erick Hutchings. At this farm-house they again changed 
horses, and then rode six miles farther to Nathan Allen's. 
Again they changed horses, and then rode about fifteen 
miles to Budd's mill. It was now near morning, and for 
the balance of the day they remained concealed in Mr. 
Budd's house. When night came, they managed, as the 
Colonel had before, to pass the sentinel at the mill, and 
then walked four miles to Mr. Brisco's. Here they ob- 
tained horses and rode eleven miles to Dr. Charles Worth- 
ington's. Here one of the outside Union sentinels was 
stationed. The guide knew him personally, and slipped 
one hundred dollars in gold into his hands. The sentinel 
became suddenly stone-blind, and our travellers passed 
by without difficulty. They were now within the Con- 
federate lines, and no longer in fear of arrest. After a 
short walk they procured horses, and then a ride of nine- 
teen miles brought them to Randolph's, at China Grove 
station. This route, it will be seen, varied some little 
from that taken by Messrs. Lamb and Waddell. A change 
of Union troops and sentinel-stations made a change of 
route sometimes necessary. The conductors of the line, 
Colonels Abercrombie and Killgore, had no less than 
five different points at which they crossed the Potomac, 
and at each point, look-outs and guides were all the while 
in waiting and all the while in the pay of the Confederacy. 

At Randolph's, Colonel Abercrombie laid aside his 



NOBILITY AFTER THE NUGGETS. 8l 

disguise and again assumed his uniform ; Lord Brewerton 
brushed up as best he could ; both took seats in the next 
passing train ; and in a few hours thereafter were at the 
Ballard House, in Richmond. No sooner was Lord 
Brewerton in his bed-chamber than he kneeled (inviting 
the Colonel to do the same) and offered up a most earnest 
prayer of thanks to God for his deliverance from dangers, 
and for the safety which had attended him thus far in his 
travels. 

Of course, the arrival of Lord Brewerton was at once 
made known to Mr. Davis, and on the following day the 
President not only called upon him, but insisted that he 
should make the Executive Mansion his home while he 
remained in Richmond, to which Lord Brewerton finally 
consented, and at once accompanied Mr. Davis to his 
home. For a day or two they were in close consultation. 
After that, members of the cabinet, army officers, and 
other prominent gentlemen commenced to call upon Lord 
Brewerton. It was soon after arranged that a reception 
ball should be given him at the Executive Mansion. The 
programme included the illumination of the grounds with 
brilliant fire-works, the attendance of military bands, with 
special invitations to all the leading civil and military of- 
ficers of the Confederacy. The reception and ball came 
off, and was even more brilliant than had been anticipated. 
Among those present were Generals Lee, Breckenridge, 
and Beauregard. The ladies, it had been arranged, should 
all dress in calico, from the President's wife down. This 
was observed to the letter, and the lord was given to un- 
derstand that it was done as a compliment to the cotton 
manufacturing interests of England, though the fact was 
that but few Southern ladies had any of their silks and 
satins left to wear. Although the South, even in the very 
highest circles of society, was beginning to feel the pinch- 
ings of poverty in dress, food, and in almost everything 



82 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

else, yet this was carefully concealed from the eyes and 
ears of Lord Brewerton during the whole time of his 
stay in the Confederacy. 

About two weeks after the grand ball, Lord Brewerton, 
accompanied by a few friends, started on a tour of inspec- 
tion through the Confederate States, especially to places 
where cotton was stored in large quantities. They visited 
Wilmington and Newbern, N. C, Charleston, Savannah, 
Mobile, and many other points. The entire trip occupied 
about two months. On his return to Richmond, Lord 
Brewerton expressed to President Davis and others his 
entire satisfaction with what he had seen and otherwise 
learned, adding that he had not the shadow of a doubt 
as to the final success of the Confederate arms. He 
assured Mr. Davis that whatever money, arms, and pro- 
visions the Confederacy might need would be promptly 
furnished by himself and his associates, in exchange for 
cotton ; and that the cause of the South would continue 
to receive, as it had all along received, the sympathy and 
moral support of all the upper classes of England. He 
also assured him that if the ministry of England could 
have the least possible excuse for interfering between the 
North and the South, they would be more than glad to 
espouse the cause of the South, as England's material 
interests all lay in this direction, and the moral sentiment 
of the nation could not stand for one moment in the way 
of its moneyed interests. 

Lord Brewerton remained in Richmond after his return 
about one week, in consultation with President Davis and 
his cabinet; Colonel Abercrombie was then telegraphed 
for; all the needed arrangements were made; the two 
left Richmond, and in less than a week were at the Eng- 
lish embassy at Washington. Their return was by the 
same route as that on which they had gone ; walking and 
riding about the same, except that they missed this time 



NOBILITY AFTER THE NUGGETS. 83 

a ride behind old Jarrett's blind mule ; nor did they have 
the luxury of spending a whole day at Aunt Rachel's 
negro hut. Lord Brewerton told Lord Lyons all about 
the incidents of their trip (as well as all that he had seen 
and learned of the Confederacy), and the two had over 
them and their wine many a hearty laugh. 

It so happened that on the evening following the re- 
turn of Lord Brewerton and Colonel Abercrombie to 
Washington, there was to be a grand reception at the 
White House. The lord invited the Colonel to accom- 
pany him to this reception, and to be introduced as his 
friend. The Colonel hesitated at first, as he feared he 
might possibly be recognized by some of his old Wash- 
ington acquaintances, or by some of Baker's secret detec- 
tives. He finally consented, however, and, in the disguise 
of a " French exquisite," did attend President Lincoln's 
grand reception, and saw and heard all that was to be 
seen and heard on such occasions. Of course, Lord 
Brewerton was the observed of all observers, and was 
recognized by all (save those who knew to the contrary) 
as a staunch friend to the Union. A few days after, Lord 
Brewerton and the Colonel went to Philadelphia, where 
they met a party of gentlemen at Dr. Charles Howell's, 
and where future business arrangements were talked over 
and agreed upon. From here the lord went to New 
York, while the Colonel returned to Washington and 
from thence to Richmond. 

Thus we finish the record of the visit of one English 
peer to the Southern Confederacy ; but this, by no means, 
constitutes the whole of such visits during the war. In 
January, 1863, Lord Talbot was at Charleston, having 
reached there by the way of Nassau. He had a son who 
was a colonel in the Confederate army, and who con- 
tinued in the service until the close of the war. In No- 
vember, 1863, Lords Harvey and Kartwright were at 



84 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Richmond; they, too, having reached the Confederate 
States by the way of Nassau. Major Hodges, one of 
General Beauregard's staff, was the son of an English 
lord, and did faithful service until the war closed. Adju- 
tant-General Cooper said that upon the army rolls were 
the names of scores who were either the sons of, or 
nearly related to, English peers. Lord Cavendish, who 
was in very bad health, remained at Nassau during most 
of the time that the war continued, rendering such aid to 
the Confederacy as lay in his power. Indeed, the immense 
hotel at Nassau was crowded with English and Northern 
sympathizers with the South nearly all the while, from 
the beginning to the end of the war, watching chances 
for running the blockade, and otherwise aiding the Con- 
federacy in whatever way they could. These gentlemen, 
however, while friends to the Confederacy, were still more 
friends to their own pockets. With them " cotton was 
king," and of this king they were trying to get as much 
in their pockets as possible, while English ministers and 
English consuls were aiding them to the extent of their 
ability. This was true not only at Washington and at 
Nassau, but generally with British ministers and British 
consuls throughout the world, which fact, added to what 
we have related of Lord Brewerton, who, doubtless, rep- 
resented many other persons besides himself, and many 
other interests besides his own, fully justifies, as we 
think, the caption given to this chapter, Nobility after 
THE Nuggets — Diplomacy Prompting the Actors. 




86 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN TIGHT PLACES AND OUT. 
SHREWDNESS PULLING THE WIRES. 

THE plan of our work admits of only one more chap- 
ter on the subject of running the land blockade, 
though, if space permitted, the entire volume might be 
filled with incidents connected with this one service. 
This chapter, therefore, must embrace a variety of inci- 
dents. 

On one of the trips, Colonel Abercrombie conducted 
Mr. Charles R. Dangerfield from Washington to Rich- 
mond, and return. Mr. Dangerfield was a large manu- 
facturer, or the agent of manufacturers, of English arms, 
accoutrements, etc., and his object in visiting Richmond 
was to make contracts with the Confederacy in exchange 
for cotton. Nothing of special note occurred on the way 
to Richmond, except that, while lying at the negro hut 
all day, two men came to the door, and asked " Aunt Je- 
mima" if Colonel Abercrombie was not there? . This 
Mr. Dangerfield heard, and it frightened him almost out 
of his wits. " Now Grant's men have us ! " said he, anil, 
springing up from where he lay, he was ready to surren- 
der at once ; but the military experience of the Colonel 
made him cooler and more courageous than the English- 
man, and he, instead of surrendering, was getting ready 
to sell his life as dearly as possible, when " Aunt Jemima " 
called out, " All 's right, honey, all 's right ! dese be your 
guides, Mas'er Colonel ; all 's right ! " Had a ten-thousand 
ton weight been lifted from Mr. Dangerfield's breast, he 

S7 



88 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

could not have felt more relieved. He was ready to 
dance a hornpipe then and there, and would have done 
it, had he not been too old, fat, and clumsy for such a' 
youthful sport. From Richmond, Mr. Dangerfield visited 
all the larger cities, and all the cotton-storing places of 
the Confederacy. On his return to Richmond he made 
contracts with the government to his entire satisfaction, 
and in due time returned to Washington, New York, and 
thence to London. 

At another time the Colonel conducted another English 
manufacturer, Mr. Francis Willis, across the lines and 
\J back. He, like Mr. Dangerfield, visited the principal points 
in the Confederacy, and, on his return to Richmond, made 
contracts to furnish arms, accoutrements, saddles, cloth- 
ing, etc., in exchange for cotton. 

There were others who were passengers on this line, at 
various times ; but as their object was to see friends or 
attend to domestic affairs, and had no direct connection 
with the war, we think it unnecessary to particularize 
them. 

On one of the trips Colonel Abercrombie was arrested 
as a spy — though his duties, and those of Colonel Kill- 
gore's, were as foreign to those of a spy as one thing can 
be foreign to another — and as there were incidents con- 
nected with the arrest and escape never heretofore known, 
we will now relate them. 

• The Colonel was on his way from Richmond to Wash- 
ington. Had reached Great Falls in safety, and was 
about half way between that point and Georgetown, when 
a sentinel suddenly called, *' Halt ! stand, or I '11 fire." 
The Colonel, who was in the disguise of a farmer, tried 
to explain to the sentinel that he was a farmer, living 
near Georgetown; that he had been up to Garrett & 
Morse's store to see a friend, and was now on his way 
back; that he was an uncompromising '^ Union man," etc., 



IN TIGHT PLACES AND OUT. 89 

etc. ; but the sentinel's only reply was that his orders were 
to halt and detain any one who attempted to pass his post, 
and that the Colonel must stand precisely where halted 
until the corporal came around, and not move a step for- 
ward or backward, or he would fire upon him. The 
Colonel saw that he had a sentinel to deal with who could 
not be either cajoled or bribed, and that he could do 
nothing else than await the coming of the corporal, and 
then try his arts upon him. Could he have got near the 
sentinel, he would have disarmed him and escaped, but 
this was impossible. When the corporal came around to 
relieve the guard the Colonel told him the same story he 
had told the sentinel ; but he seemed to doubt the story, 
and told the Colonel he must " fall in " and accompany 
them to the Captain's headquarters, about a half-mile dis- 
tant. On reaching there the Colonel repeated the same 
old story, to all of which the Captain listened attentively 
and respectfully. The Captain had just eaten his supper, 
and, learning from the Colonel that he had not yet had 
his, asked him to take a seat at the table and help himself. 
While the Colonel was eating, the Captain narrowly ob- 
served him, and pretty soon cried out, " Yes ! I see you 
are a farmer from the way you handle your knife and 
fork ! A pretty farmer you are, to be sure ! " The Colo- 
nel was nonplussed for a moment and could make no 
reply ; but after awhile managed to say that he " could n't 
see why a farmer could not handle a knife and fork just 
as well as anybody else." He was caught, fairly caught, 
by his " society manners," and the more he talked, the 
better satisfied the Captain became that he was not a 
farmer, and might be a spy. He was accordingly sent, 
that same night, to the headquarters of the Eleventh 
Pennsylvania regiment, and there put in the guard-house. 
Next morning the colonel of this regiment sent him to 
General Wilson's headquarters, near by, who, after some 



90 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

questions, sent him back to the guard-house. The next 
night Colonel Abercrombie made an attempt to escape, and 
nearly succeeded. This being reported to General Wilson, 
he ordered a heavy ball and chain to be strongly riveted 
to the Colonel's leg. Matters now began to look des- 
perate ; for, while the Colonel had no fear of being con- 
demned as a spy, he was ready to do anything, rather 
than be brought before a court-martial and recognized. 
He bethought himself of some medicine he always car- 
ried with him. Of this he took a dose, and soon had a 
most violent diarrhoea. He now could ask, and did ask, 
to be sent to a hospital, and next day was sent to the 
*' Lincoln Hospital," near Georgetown. It chanced that 
on the next couch to his in the hospital lay a Confederate 
captain, named Lawrence Norton, of Georgia. The two 
soon became acquainted. The Colonel told the Cap- 
tain that if by any means the ball and chain could be 
taken from his leg, he could escape from the hospital. 
The Captain told his wife this when she visited him next 
day ; the wife became immediately interested, and soon 
procured and brought to her husband a watch-spring file; 
the Captain that same night so filed the clasp, which held 
the ball and chain to the Colonel's ankle, that it could be 
slipped off at any moment. The Colonel watched the 
surgeon when he came into the hospital next day, and 
managed to slip a pass from the surgeon's overcoat 
pocket while it lay upon a stand near his bed. With this 
pass and two empty bottles in his hand, he rushed by the 
sentinel at the door, on the plea that he was in great haste 
to bring medicines which the doctor had just sent him 
after. Once outside the building, he sprang over a ceme- 
tery fence, and from thenceforth allowed no grass to grow 
under his feet until he was safe at Ben Beveridge's hotel. 
Here, of course, there was great rejoicing at the Colonel's 
wonderful escape; but, fearing pursuit, it was thought 



IN TIGHT PLACES AND OUT. 9I 

best that the Colonel should proceed at once to Balti- 
more, and from thence to Philadelphia. It was deemed 
best, too, that he should not start from the Washington 
depot, lest detectives be on the watch there for him. Ac- 
cordingly, Ben ordered up his own spanking team of bays, 
and before daybreak had the Colonel at the Bladensburg 
station, where he took the first train that came along for 
Baltimore. Fearing, however, to go into the Baltimore 
depot, lest detectives might be there on the watch for him, 
the Colonel got off the train at the Relay House, and 
gave a man a twenty-dollar gold piece to drive him into 
Baltimore, a distance of about thirteen miles. He went 
direct to the Fountain Hotel, in Light Street, where he 
remained carefully concealed for several days, only seeing 
Mr. Thomas, Mr. Wilson, and such others as he knew to 
be firm friends of the Southern cause. Then he went to 
Philadelphia and remained at Dr. Howell's for about two 
weeks. 

Meanwhile the newspapers of Washington and of the 
whole country were publishing accounts about the "won- 
derful escape of a rebel spy," and all sorts of guesses 
were made as to who he was, how he had managed to 
escape, who had helped him, where he had gone, etc., etc. 
Of course, the whole of Baker's national detective force 
and all the police and detective forces of New York, 
Philadelphia, and of every other Northern city, were 
specially charged to search out, arrest, and bring to 
speedy justice this "desperate rebel spy;" but not one 
of them all ever succeeded in arresting, nor even in as- 
certaining who this "rebel spy "was; and not until this 
shall appear in print will the world at large ever know 
who the arrested party was, how he managed his escape, 
or what became of him after his escape. 



92 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

JOHNSON IN A QUANDARY. 

THE HEART MASTERING THE HEAD. 

There was another incident connected with the running 
of the land blockade which, though hardly sufficient for 
an entire chapter, is too important and too interesting to 
allow to pass without notice : for not until this is pub- 
lished will it ever be known outside of some half-dozen 
persons. The incident was as follows: 

On one of his blockade-running visits to Washington, 
Colonel Abercrombie learned that Senator Andrew John* 
son, as it then was (though afterwards Vice-President, and 
still afterwards President of the United States), had rooms at 
Beveridge's Hotel, the very place that he was making his 
headquarters when in Washington. Knowing the Sen- 
ator to be a fierce, uncompromising Union man, the news 
of his close proximity at first alarmed the Colonel ; but, 
upon reflection, he remembered that Mrs. Johnson and 
his mother had long been on the most intimate terms, — 
that the Senator knew him personally, and had always 
treated him with the utmost kindness, — that he was a 
man of generous heart, and even though he should learn 
of his being there, the danger of his interfering with him 
was next to nothing. He therefore decided to stand his 
ground and take the chances. 

As proximity to danger is always exciting, and, after a 
time, becomes attractive, so in this case, what at first 
seemed alarming, after a time became so attractive that 
the Colonel had a longing desire to see and converse 
with his old friend, Andrew Johnson. He communicated 
this desire to his friend and co-associate in the blockade- 
running business, Ben Beveridge, and asked him what he 
thought of it. Ben, at first, thought it would not do at 
all ; but, like the Colonel, after thinking over the matter 



IN TIGHT PLACES AND OUT. 93 

some time, concluded that it would be a capital joke, and 
advised the Colonel to try it. 

' The Colonel was disguised — so disguised, indeed, that 
even his own sister would not have known him, had she 
met him in the street — and the arrangement was, that 
Ben should await in the entry, near the Senator's cham- 
ber-door, while the Colonel went in to talk with him ; 
and that, if the Senator did not receive him kindly, or if 
he showed any disposition to arrest him, the Colonel 
should at once quit the room, and Ben would help him to 
escape. 

Everything thus understood, the Colonel went to the 
Senator's door and knocked gently. A deep, stentorian 
voice replied, " Come in ;" but the Colonel pretended not 
to hear this, and knocked again, as he wanted the Senator 
to come to and open the door, that he might at once step 
within the room, whether the Senator invited him to do 
so or not. The second knock brought the Senator to 
the door, which he opened far enough to face his visitor, 
when he said : 

" How do you do, sir?" 

The Colonel replied, and, while replying, stepped within 
the room, when the Senator shut the door, and invited 
his visitor to take a seat. The Colonel did not sit down, 
but, taking hold of the back of the chair offered him, he 
said to Mr. Johnson : 

" You seem not to know me, Mr. Senator. When did 
you leave Greenville? and where is Mrs. Johnson and 
Bob?" 

This confused the Senator more than ever, as the 
visitor seemed to be familiar with his wife and son, as 
well as with himself, and yet he could not recollect to 
have ever seen him before. 

" Well, no," replied the Senator, " I really cannot place 
you, or call your name. By jingo! who are you, any way?" 



94 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

" I guess you don't want to know me," replied the 
Colonel, " and I had better be going." 

"Oh, no, sir; oh, no," replied Mr. Johnson; "sit down! 
sit down ! When did you come from Greenville ? But 
really, sir, I cannot recall your name — I cannot." 

The Colonel observed the Senator's confusion, and so 
enjoyed the joke that it was some time before he would 
let himself be known. Then, suddenly tearing the false 
whiskers from his face and putting on a natural ex- 
pression, he stood revealed before the Senator. 

"My God! is this you, Ralph?" was all that Mr. 
Johnson could say for some moments ; and then added, 
" Why, Ralph, ain't you in the rebel service ? " 

" Well, what if I am ? " replied the Colonel ; " you don't 
propose to arrest me, do you ?" 

"No, no; but, by jingo! what under heavens brought 
you here?" said the Senator; and, going to the door, 
locked it before the Colonel had time to reply. " Sit 
down! sit down!" he added, "and tell me all about it. 
What under heavens could have brought you here, or 
induced you to call upon me?" 

The Colonel then took a seat and explained to Mr. 
Johnson why he was there, the nature of his business, 
and that he had only called upon him as a good joke, 
and to renew an old acquaintance; to all of which the 
Senator listened attentively, though trembling meanwhile 
from excitement. When the Colonel had finished, Mr. 
Johnson sprang from his chair, walked hurriedly across 
the room two or three times, went to the front windows 
and pulled down the shades, and then, turning to the 
Colonel, said : 

" Does anybody know that you are here with me ?" 

Just then Mr. Johnson heard a tittering in the entry- 
way, and, turning to the Colonel, asked him if he had 
any companions waiting outside. The Colonel replied, 



IN TIGHT PLACES AND OUT. 95 

that he thought it might be Ben, as he alone knew of 
his visit. Immediately Mr. Johnson stepped to the door, 
and, seeing Ben, asked him to step in. Ben did so, and 
now the Senator became more in a quandary than ever. 
He scolded both Ben and the Colonel pretty severely, 
and told them they did not appreciate the awkward posi- 
tion in which they were placing him; that, if the Colonel's 
visit to him were known, it would, under the circum- 
stances, compromise him in a most serious manner. Ben 
tried to soothe the Senator by telling him that the 
Colonel's call upon him was only intended as a joke; 
that it could never be known outside of their three 
selves ; and that it should never be repeated, if annoying 
to him. The Senator replied, that while he was glad, 
personally, to see Ralph, yet the fact that he was known 
to be an officer in the rebel army, and in his business of 
blockade-running might by some be regarded as a spy, 
made it doubly awkward for him, and, if it were known 
to the Senate, might cost him his seat, as well as his 
reputation as a consistent Union man; that nearly every 
one would say that he ought to have had the Colonel 
arrested and detained, at least as a prisoner-of-war, if not 
as a spy; and that, in holding communication with him 
without attempting his arrest, he made himself a party 
to his crime, whether as a rebel to the government or as 
a spy. The more the Senator talked. about it, the graver 
he became over it, until the Colonel and Ben saw that 
what had been intended as a comedy might prove a 
serious tragedy with all concerned, and that the sooner 
they got out of the way the better. Before leaving, the 
Senator exacted from each a solemn promise that they 
would not repeat the joke under any possible circum- 
stances. 

There is no kind of doubt that Senator Johnson felt 
greatly troubled at receiving such a visit from an officer in 



96 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the Confederate service, and in learning that his land- 
lady's son, Ben, was just as much of a rebel at heart as 
the Colonel himself He knew, too, that his official duty 
as a United States Senator was to have both of these men 
arrested, tried, and, if possible, convicted, while his heart 
prompted to a course directly the contrary. He had long 
known, and had high regard for, the mothers of both ; 
the men he had known from childhood upward, and al- 
ways liked them, as boys, as young men, as men in active 
life, and he would as soon have thought of having his 
own son, " Bob," arrested as either of these, and yet his 
duty plainly pointed in that direction. It was a conflict 
between his head and his heart, in which his heart gained 
the mastery. 

That the Senator did not hold any ill-will against the 
Colonel or against Ben for this wild prank of theirs 
against his Senatorial and official dignity is proven from 
the fact that he still continued to board with Ben's mother 
at the " Washington House," and within two years after 
he became President he appointed the Colonel as one of 
three commissioners to reopen and establish mail-routes 
throughout the late Confederate States. 




98 



CHAPTER VII. 

PRISONERS, HO IV USED AND HOW ABUSED. 
CRAFT AND CRUELTY PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

IN General L. C. Baker's " History of the United States 
Secret Service," four chapters are devoted to the sub- 
ject of bounty-jumpers. In these chapters the startHng 
facts are disclosed that " on investigation, it was found 
that only one in four of the enlisted men reached the 
front ; " that, in some instances, the entire quota of a town- 
ship was filled with the names of bounty -jumpers, not one 
of whom ever really enlisted or went to the front ; that 
desertions from the army became so common that to 
*' even attempt to show, by actual figures, the number 
would be impossible;" that "to aid the soldier to desert 
was deemed to be as much the legitimate business and 
calling of the professional bounty broker as to enlist 
him;" that in one investigation it was shown, "out of 
5,284 enlisted, only 2,083 actually entered the service;'* 
that out of this number — less than one-half who really 
enlisted — not more than three-fourths ever reached the 
front, and of these probably one-fourth deserted and re- 
turned to the States, to reenlist and receive bounty 
again ; that of one hundred and eighty-three who enlisted 
in one day at Hoboken and were credited to the quota of 
Jersey City, every one was a bounty-jumper; that case 
after case came to light where a single bounty-jumper had 
enlisted three times, and received three separate bounties, 
in one day, and that even gipsy-like gangs were organized, 
who travelled from city to city, enlisting such of their 

99 



\ 

^00 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

number as they could, assisting such as enlisted to escape, 
and then on to the next city or recruiting station to re- 
peat the same thing. Of one such gang it is related that 
" in a trip of thirty -two days their total profits amounted 
to ;^32,ooo." 

It is also a matter of record that while skirmishes and 
battles were in progress, Union soldiers in the front ranks, 
and especially if sent forward as skirmishers, would some- 
times throw down their muskets and run over to the 
enemy ; and it not unfrequently happened that sentinels 
on the outposts were missing and never heard of more, 
or, if heard of, it would be found they had gone within 
the Confederate liiles and surrendered. 

These matters have all been told, and well told, by 
other historians, but not until these " Secrets of the Re- 
bellion " have been published will it be generally known 
what became of those who thus threw down their arms, 
and of those who thus abandoned their posts, to go over 
to the enemy, and that to encourage bounty-jumping in 
the North, and thereby promote desertions from the Union 
army, became, after August, 1863, a part of the masterly 
diplomacy or tactics adopted by the Confederate Govern- 
ment. 

Of the bounty-jumpers who first tried the game of 
going over to the enemy, under the belief that they would 
soon be exchanged or paroled, and thus have opportuni- 
ties for procuring additional bounties, quite a number 
were shot as spies. The " dead-board," as it was called, 
of General Lee's army, had a summary way of dealing 
with all cases which they deemed of a questionable char- 
acter. A statement from the person making the arrest; 
where found, and under what circumstances ; a few ques- 
tions to the accused ; a consultation of ten minutes 
among the seven officers who composed the board; 
sentence ; and on the day following, and sometimes on 



PRISONERS, HOW USED AND HOW ABUSED. lOI 

the same day, the accused would be seen sitting on an 
empty coffin, on his way to execution. 

But in August, 1863, a new thought crossed the brain 
of the Confederate authorities. They then concluded 
that, instead of shooting bounty-jumpers as spies, they 
could make them serviceable to the Confederate cause 
by using them as stool-pigeons, and like as stool-pigeons 
are used to draw whole flocks into the net, so these could 
be used to corrupt, and bring thousands into the Confed- 
erate lines. In pursuance of this new idea, five large to- 
bacco warehouses, on Carey Street, each three stories 
high, directly opposite ** Castle Thunder," in Richmond, 
were converted into a prison, and called " Castle Light- 
ning." In this prison, bounty-jumpers alone were put, 
and the rations furnished them were doubly as good as the 
rations furnished the prisoners in other prisons. When- 
ever an exchange of prisoners was possible, those in Cas- 
tle Lightning were always given the preference, and, when 
about to leave, they were told that they should take from 
the Yankees as many bounties as they possibly could; 
that, if again sent to the front, they should desert, and 
bring as many others along with them as possible ; that 
they would always be well treated, and given the best ra- 
tions the Confederacy could afford ; that they would be 
exchanged, or otherwise sent back to their homes, at the 
first opportunity; and that to secure safety and good 
treatment, when coming into the Confederate lines, they 
should cry out, " Bounty-jumper ! Bounty-jumper ! " This 
was told them not only when about to leave, but again, 
and again, and again during their stay, and the superior 
treatment they received while prisoners, assured them 
that the promises made would all be fulfilled. 

Within a few weeks after the return of the first batch 
of these bounty-jumpers to the North, the effect of the 
new policy began to show itself, and it steadily increased 
9* 



I02 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

from that time onward. Hardly a day, and sometimes 
several times in a day, squads of Union prisoners arrived 
in Richmond, and were marched to Castle Lightning, who 
had voluntarily come within the lines, and claimed to be 
bounty-jumpers. Nor was there scarcely a day in which 
squads of these same men might not be seen leaving 
the prison, on their way to be exchanged, or otherwise 
sent back to the Union army, or direct to their homes. 
Like leaven, its tendency was to leaven the whole lump, 
as the authorities of the Confederacy believed would be the 
case when they adopted the policy. One such man in a 
company would, in time, taint the whole company; ten 
such men in a regiment would, in time, taint the whole 
regiment. When a battle is progressing, a single regiment, 
yea, a single company, going over to the enemy will some- 
times so change the tide of battle that what seemed an 
assured victory, will prove a most disastrous defeat. 

Of course it is not known, never can be known, how 
many millions of dollars, nor how many thousands of 
lives the adoption of this policy by the South cost the 
North ; nor can the South ever know the amount of ad- 
vantage which they derived from adopting the policy; 
but that it was a new mode of warfare, and showed great 
shrewdness on the part of those who conceived and car- 
ried out the project, all will agree in admitting. 

Having thus shown how the Confederate authorities 
used Union prisoners to benefit their own cause, we will 
next proceed to state some additional facts as to the abuse 
received by other Union prisoners. The facts which we 
now purpose to state are not from hearsay, not from one- 
sided newspapers, nor from partisan historians, but di- 
rectly from the lips of one who had occasion to visit 
Confederate prisoners frequently during the war, whose 
whole soul was in, and with, the Confederate cause, and 
who could not be, and would not be, by any who knew 



PRISONERS, HOW USED AND HOW ABUSED. IO3 

him, accused of sympathy with the *' Yankees," as he 
usually styles Union soldiers when speaking of them. 
We have not space to write of all, and will limit our 
remarks to only four of the many places throughout the 
Confederate States at which Union prisoners were con- 
fined. 

First. — " Libby Prison." This was located in Rich- 
mond, and had been a tobacco warehouse previous to its 
use as a prison. It was an immense brick building, three 
stories high, rough floors, no plastering, a great number 
of windows, no fire-places, and no means for heating 
other than for the office on the first floor. In this, hun- 
dreds of Union prisoners were thrust and kept for weeks, 
months, years — some with scarcely enough clothing left 
to cover their nakedness, and with no chance for a change ; 
many without a blanket, even in the coldest winter weather; 
all without beds, or mattress, or anything but the hard 
floor to lie upon. Their ordinary daily ration consisted 
of a loaf made from one pint of corn-meal and one pint 
of rice soup. Occasionally, though rarely, they would 
have bread made from wheat flour and soup made from 
meat and bones. Once in a great while they were served 
with meat, but the quantity served to each man was so 
smaH that it could be taken at a mouthful. Our inform- 
ant says he knows of a certainty that some actually starved 
to death — that others actually froze to death — that many 
were wantonly shot while thoughtlessly looking out of 
the windows, by sentinels on the sidewalks, who had 
positive orders from Lieutenant Turner, the officer in 

command of Libby, to shoot any "d d Yankee" 

whose head might be seen at the window-bars ; and that 
hundreds, yea, thousands, died from sickness brought upon 
them by the privations from which they suflered. We 
could give other details, but they are too horrible to write, 
and would be too sickening to read. 



104 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Second.^** Cdistle Thunder." All that we have said 
of " Libby " will apply equally well to this prison, except 
that in some cases the cruelty of treatment might be mul- 
tiplied by two, and in some instances by three. Here our 
informant saw prisoners with ball and chain to their legs, 
and handcuffed together ; chanced to be in the room when 
the brains of one of the prisoners were spattered against 
the wall, by a ball from the musket in the hands of a sen- 
tinel on the pavement two stories below, and only because 
the prisoner had dared to look out at a window ; learned 
of many like cases which occurred before and after that 
visit ; nor has he any doubt that scores were there inhu- 
manly shot, because of orders from the officer in com- 
mand, Captain Alexander. At least one Union prisoner, 
a Captain Dayton, was hung on the charge of being a 
spy. In this prison, dogs that chanced to stray in were 
seized, killed, and eaten ; and rat-meat was regarded as 
a dainty dish. 

Third. — Salisbury, N. C, was a large enclosure within 
a high board fence, on the outside of which was a walk 
for sentinels, and within which was the " dead-line," about 
thirty feet from the fence, to cross which meant instant 
death to any prisoner. The " sinks " for the camp were 
located on this " dead-line," and at one of his visits our in- 
formant saw the dead body of a prisoner lying in one of 
the " sinks," who had been shot by a sentinel in the after- 
noon of the day before while sitting on the pole at the 
** sink." The sentinel, when asked why he had shot the 
prisoner, replied that he thought he was trying to come 
over the dead-line and therefore shot him. At this same 
visit our informant saw sentinels, with guns on their shoul- 
ders, pacing their rounds on the outside of this fence, 
who were not over twelve years of age, and the one who 
had shot the prisoner at the " sink " was scarcely over 
this age. The whole regiment on guard at that camp, at 



PRISONERS, HOW USED AND HOW ABUSED. IO5 

that time, was made up of boys from twelve to sixteen 
years of age, and of very old men — not one of all of whom 
was fit for a soldier. The officer in command, a Major 
Gee, was himself a brute, and no more fit to have the care 
of human beings than a hyena would be to be placed in 
charge of a sheepfold. Here, as at Libby and Castle 
Thunder, the usual ration was a loaf made from one pint 
of corn-meal, each day, and occasionally a small bit of 
meat. For shelter most of them had to burrow for them- 
selves, like rabbits, in holes under ground ; and so poorly 
were they off for clothing and shoes, that our informant 
saw scores of men standing about the doors of hospitals, 
waiting for the clothing and shoes of those who might 
die within. Every morning carts came around to gather 
up the dead, to take them without the camp and throw 
in trenches. 

Fourth. — Andersonville, Georgia. This was an en- 
closure of about twenty-five acres, surrounded by a high 
stockade, and by earthworks mounted with cannon. One 
end of the enclosure was a swamp, through which crept 
a sluggish, muddy stream, and this was the only water 
to which the prisoners had access. To add to the filthi- 
ness and consequent unhealthfulness of this water, a 
Confederate camp was located upon it, above the point 
where the stream entered the stockade. The few build- 
ings within the enclosure were scarcely enough for hos- 
pital purposes, and here, as at Salisbury, the prisoners 
had to burrow in the earth for shelter. Even in the 
coldest of weather thousands had no blankets, nor scarcely 
clothing enough to cover their nakedness. Their ordi- 
nary ration here, as at the other places named, was a 
loaf made from one pint of corn-meal each day, and 
when, as occasionally they did, receive anything beyond 
this, it was regarded as a rare treat. The shooting of 
men on the "dead-line" was almost of daily occurrence. 



I06 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Indeed, many of the prisoners became so crazed from 
suffering that they sought death in this way. General 
Winder was commander of the camp, and under him 
was the Captain Wirz who was tried, convicted, and hung 
at Washington near the close of the war. Thousands at 
the South, as well as at the North, believed then, and 
believe still, that General Winder, instead of his subor- 
dinate officer, should have stood beneath the hangman's 
noose. Undoubtedly he could have corrected these ter- 
rible wrongs had he tried. That he did not try is proof 
positive that he did not care. The world at large always 
gives to commanders the chief credit of all done by their 
subordinates, and, on the same principle, holds them re- 
sponsible for all that their subordinates fail to do or do 
wrongfully. Had General Winder desired his prisoners 
to have had better treatment, neither Captain Wirz, nor any 
other of his subordinates, would have treated them as 
they did. How much they suffered none will ever know. 
The horrible things related in the foregoing pages, and 
the thousands of other terrible things related by others 
who have written the history of the Rebellion, are but as 
drops to the ocean, as sands to the sea-shore, to all that 
occurred during the war. Dark deeds seek to hide them- 
selves always, and while the " secrets " of this volume, 
and a few others, have oozed out since the war, others 
doubtless quite as bad have never yet, and probably 
never will, see the light of day. And possibly it is best 
so. There are some deeds that so harrow up one's 
feelings that, if related, they would, as said by Hamlet's 
ghost : 

"Freeze the young blood; 

Make the two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres ; 

The knotted and combined locks to part. 

And each particular hair to stand on end 

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine." 



PRISONERS, HOW USED AND HOW ABUSED. lO/ 

Or, after hearing them, make us to cry out with Ham- 
let (slightly varied) : 

" O all you host of heaven ! O earth ! what else ? 
And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold my heart; 
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, 
But bear me stiffly up! — Remember them? 
Yea, from the table of my memory 
I '11 wipe away all trivial records, 
All saws of books, all forms, all pleasures past, 
That youth and observation copied there. 
And these base deeds alone, alone shall live 
Within the book and volume of my brain 
Unmixed with baser matter ; 
And on my tablets I will set it down 
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain ! " 

We could ourself add more, much more, from what our 
informant told us ; but our heart sickens over such re- 
citals, and our readers, we are sure, have had quite enough 
of it. 

The first question, and the most natural question for 
any one to ask, after reading the terrible atrocities just 
recited, would be, Who was or is accountable for all this 
suffering? 

The gentleman from whose lips we gathered most of 
the foregoing facts had opportunities of learning the in- 
dividual sentiments of President Davis upon this subject, 
as upon many others, quite as well, perhaps, as any man 
within the lines of the Confederacy, and he assured us 
that Mr. Davis regretted, as milch as any man could 
regret, the sufferings of Union prisoners, and that, when- 
ever reports of their ill-treatment came to his ears, he 
at once gave them attention. That, time and again, Mr. 
Davis appointed gentlemen of high character to visit the 
prison-places we have named, and report to him any and 
all abuses of which they might learn; that, again and 
again, he cautioned, reprimanded, and in some cases re 



I08 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

moved, officers charged with cruelty to Union prisoners ; 
and that he did whatever it was possible for him to do to 
mitigate their sufferings. In view of the high personal 
character which Mr. Davis bore before he became Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy, and of the consistent Christian 
character he has since borne, it is to be hoped that this 
is a correct interpretation of his sentiments with reference 
to Union prisoners. It would almost make one lose faith 
in humanity were it otherwise. 

If President Davis was not responsible, the next most 
natural question would be, Who is ? and to this answers 
would differ with almost every one who might attempt to 
make reply. While the outrages were being perpetrated, 
the people of the North generally held Mr. Davis respon- 
sible for all of them, on the principle heretofore stated ; 
but towards the close of the war, and during the ten 
years following the war, public opinion greatly changed, 
until few, if any, held him longer responsible ; and now 
there are not probably ten men in the whole United States, 
of such as know anything of the facts, who hold him 
personally responsible for these outrages. 

Our informant thought the responsibility lay most, if 
not wholly, with the officers in immediate command of 
these prisons and camps. That, while food was undoubt- 
edly scarce in the Confederacy, still he believed the pris- 
oners did not get all that the government allowed and 
paid for ; that while charged only with the safe-keeping 
of the prisoners, the officers in command went far beyond 
this, and made security a pretext for severity ; that they 
were malicious, vindictive, devilish, and, while dressed in 
a "little brief authority," allowed these traits of their own 
characters to have full play in torturing those committed 
to their keeping. If this, or half of this, be true, God 
have pity on their souls when they stand, as all must, 
before Christ's judgment-seat ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. 

CUNNING AND DUPLICITY PROMPTING THE ACTORS. — DE- 
STRUCTION IN THE BACKGROUND. 

THE remark is attributed to General Grant that he had 
" less dread of the whole of General Lee's army 
than of Colonel Moseby's cavalry." To one unacquainted 
with the irregular, predatory mode of warfare of these 
bands, such a remark, from such a source, would seem 
impossible; but when it is known that cunning, deception, 
downright lying, and any amount of cruelty needed to 
their ends, were principles and practices which they re- 
garded as fair ; that they did not hold themselves amen- 
able to army regulations, nor to the law of nations, but 
were in all cases a " law unto themselves," then the won- 
der ceases, and we can understand that even so fearless 
and so wise a general as Grant might have made just 
such a remark. 

During the war the newspapers of the whole country 
had considerable to say about Mosebyand his marauding 
band ; and, since the war, all who have written histories 
have had more or less to say about him ; and yet not the 
one-hundredth part of his depredations have ever been 
recorded, nor is there one in a thousand, either North or 
South, who know how his band was organized, how they 
operated, or what were the results, except in a few cases, 
of their operations. With our army experience of nearly 
three years, and with all our reading of newspapers and 
histories, we admit to have known nothing, or next to 



112 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

nothing, of the plan on which his band was organized, 
of the principles on which they operated, and of the ter- 
rible results of those operations until quite recently. It 
chanced, not long since, that we met a gentleman who 
was an officer in the Confederate army during nearly the 
whole of the war, who was personally acquainted with 
Colonel Moseby and many of his men, and who had from 
their own lips carefully detailed accounts of many of their 
daring exploits, at a time when they gloried in them and 
delighted to tell them to their friends ; and whose personal 
relations with President Davis, Adjutant-General Cooper, 
and others gave him the opportunity of knowing what 
was going on behind the scenes, as well as upon the stage. 
From him we gathered most of the following facts, and 
as many of them have never been published before, we 
are sure they will be of great interest, as showing another 
phase of the acts going on behind the scenes while the 
armies of the Union and of the Confederacy were fighting 
their battles on the public stage, with all the world as 
spectators. 

It will be recollected that in the beginning of the Con- 
federate government troops were called out by proclama- 
tion of the President, the same as at the North. But that, 
after a time, as the war progressed and volunteering be- 
came less and less, conscription had to be resorted to, and, 
finally, that every man at all able to bear arms was called 
into the service. 

Early in the war Colonel Moseby proposed to the Con- 
federate War Department to raise a company for " special 
and independent service," meaning guerilla service, though 
of course he did not use a word so objectionable in mak- 
ing the application. He was then a practising lawyer in a 
small town in Western Virginia, and wanted to keep up 
his own dignity as well as that of his profession. The 
War Department granted his request, and in a little while 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. I.I3 

his company was full. Finding others eager to join him, 
as the young men of his own and of adjoining counties 
much preferred to join an "independent" command than 
go into the Confederate army (and they soon found they 
must do one or the other), he next proposed to the War 
Department to raise a regiment on the same basis. This, 
too, was granted him, and in due time he had about fifteen 
hundred men on his muster-rolls, divided up into compa- 
nies, each with its captain, lieutenants, sergeants, etc., 
many of whom were not known to the general public, 
nor scarcely beyond their immediate friends and relatives. 
All his officers and all his men lived at their homes, on 
their farms, in their ofifices, in their stores, in their work- 
shops, pursuing their usual vocations ; but each was care- 
ful to carry, concealed about his person, a certificate show- 
ing that he belonged to Colonel Moseby's regiment of 
" independent " cavalry, so that if called upon by a con- 
scripting officer he could at once show that he was already 
in the service. The regiment was called " independent," 
and was really so, for the reason that it was attached to no 
brigade, division, or corps, but operated and cooperated 
with other commands only as chance happened to throw 
them together. His orders came from the President, or 
the War Department, through Adjutant-General Cooper, 
who directed him whom to obey as his superior officer 
for the time being, and to whom to report at any time for 
special duty. Many, a great many, of his acts, however, 
were done purely on his own volition, on his own respon- 
sibility, and without orders from any superior officer, nor 
were these acts always approved by those at the seat of 
government. Two or three times he was summoned to 
Richmond to answer complaints lodged against him ; but 
such was the influence he exerted with members of the 
Confederate Congress, through members of his regiment, 
many of whom were the sons or near relatives of some 
10^ H 



114 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

of the most wealthy and most influential families of Vir- 
ginia, that each time he came off scot-free, and was 
worse after than before. 

His ordinary manner of operating was as follows : His 
officers and men, as before stated, lived at home, and 
were only known as citizens, pursuing their ordinary 
vocations ; and, for the last two years of the war, a con- 
siderable number, probably more than half, lived withht 
the Union lines, and called themselves "Union" men. 
From and after the time when the Rapidan River became 
the line of the two armies this was especially so ; and 
after that time nearly all his operations lay between the 
Rapidan and the Potomac, mostly in the counties of 
Loudon, Fauquier, Shenandoah, and Rockingham. Oc- 
casionally he would cross the Potomac into Maryland, 
and operate at points between Cumberland City and the 
Great Falls. 

When from officers and members of his own regiment 
living within the Union lines, or from others, he would 
learn of the contemplated movements of certain supply- 
trains, of certain paymasters, of certain small squads on 
special duty, he would at once issue orders to enough of 
his men to meet him at a particular house, or a particular 
cross-roads, at ten or twelve o'clock of a particular night, 
fully armed, equipped, and mounted for the service in 
which they were about to engage. Sometimes the num- 
ber ordered out would be ten, sometimes twenty, some- 
times fifty, and sometimes a whole company or more, 
according to the force which they expected to meet and 
overcome. Only when ordered to join and cooperate 
with some general commanding officer, would he call out 
his whole available force. He had no fixed headquarters, 
but his officers and men always knew exactly where to 
communicate with him, as he always knew exactly where 
to find them ; and when he issued an order it was speedily 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. II5 

conveyed from lip to lip, and seldom failed to meet with 
the expected response. He and his men were all the 
while on the alert, and seldom failed to take prompt ad- 
vantage of any opportunity that offered. His own men 
not unfrequently applied for (as farmers' sons living in the 
neighborhood) and obtained temporary employment as 
team-drivers, blacksmiths, farriers, etc., in the Union 
army, and in this way secured information in advance of 
every contemplated movement, whether of the army, of 
supplies, or of detachments on special service. As soon 
as such information was obtained, it was conveyed from 
lip to lip, until it reached the ears of Colonel Moseby. 
Then he would decide whether a raid was practicable or 
not; and if it was, the needed number of men were sum- 
moned to meet him at a certain place at a set time. 

To get through the line of Union sentinels without 
alarming the whole Union army, he had numerous strat- 
agems. Having men on both sides of the line, he knew 
the exact location of every post, just the hour at which 
each sentinel was placed and relieved, and the precise 
strength of the squad or company, and where located, 
from which each sentinel was detached. Where only a 
single sentinel needed to be removed, to allow him and 
his squad to pass in and out of the Union lines, he was 
stealthily pounced upon, disarmed, killed, or otherwise 
taken care of If more than one needed removing, the 
same operation might be practised on two or more. 
Where a whole squad or company needed to be gobbled 
up, he had enough of his men to quietly surround them, 
and, at the blowing of a whistle or other signal, suddenly 
pounce upon and take them all prisoners, usually without 
the firing of a gun, or with scarcely a word spoken above a 
whisper. Secrecy, celerity, and ** dead men tell no tales," 
were his maxims — and most fearfully did he put these 
maxims into practice. It would fill this entire volume to 



Il6 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

tell all the times ; but the following instances, selected 
from the many, some of which have and some of which 
never have been told before, will fully corroborate all that 
we have heretofore said, and show the terrible character 
of the warfare carried on by this class of men behind the 
scenes, while the Union and Confederate armies were con- 
tending for the mastery in front of the scenes. 

During the summer and fall of 1863, Moseby's guerillas 
were exceedingly active. Almost every night they had 
some enterprise on hand, large or small, and while most 
of them were of such a character as to excite but little 
attention and no alarm, yet now and then one would occur 
of so startling a nature, and of so villanous a character, 
as to arouse all who heard of it, and make every honest 
man wish that the perpetrators could be caught and hung 
higher than Haman. The first we purpose to relate was 
of this character, and, so far as we know, this will be its 
first publication in historic form, though well known at 
the time by everybody in the neighborhood, and by offi- 
cers in both armies. 

The position of Maryland during the war was exceed- 
ingly perplexing. Lying, as it does, midway between 
the North and the South, her soil was traversed by both 
armies, and her people were constantly subjected to an- 
noyance, if not to danger, from both Union and Confed- 
erate troops. As a slaveholding State, the sympathies of 
her people were mostly with the Southern cause, and yet 
the business relations of many of her citizens with the 
people of the North, and her contiguity to Pennsylvania, 
had made many of her citizens strongly in favor of main- 
taining the Union. A considerable number of her citizens 
had joined the Confederate army ; a considerable number 
had joined the Union army ; while those who stayed at 
home endeavored to remain as nearly neutral as possible. 
To a Northern man or a Union soldier, they were all for 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. II7 

the Union ; to a Southern man or a Confederate soldier, 
they were all for Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy ; to 
one who did not care a fig which side won, they were 
quite as indifferent as he dared be. Moseby and his mid- 
night marauders seemed to have taken, for some cause, a 
special dislike to the Marylanders, and the first four 
instances we purpose to give occurred on that side of 
the Potomac. 

Mr. B. (our informant had forgotten the name, though 
he had been at the place and was entirely familiar with 
the incident, having obtained it from the lips of one who 
was a participant) — Mr. B. was a quiet, inoffensive old 
man, who endeavored to live at peace with everybody, 
and who was probably as little of a partisan as any man 
in the State. He seldom, if ever, talked upon politics, 
rarely about the war, and, when upon either, was always 
careful to do it in such a way as not to offend his listener. 
He kept a small country store at a point where two roads 
crossed each other, and was as ready to exchange his 
coffee, sugar, or molasses, his calicoes, hardware, or 
queensware, for country produce or for money, with a 
Confederate as with a Union man, or with a Union man 
as with a Confederate, There was no village about his 
store, not even the usual accompaniments of a black- 
smith- and wheelwright-shop. 

Moseby had taken a dislike to this man. Why, it is not 
known, except it be that he sold his goods to Union men 
and Union soldiers, as well as to Confederates, when 
opportunity offered. So far as is known, the man had 
never given any personal offence to Moseby or his men, 
though they had several times visited his store, usually, 
if not always, in disguise ; and we may here add, once for 
all, that when Moseby or his men were moving about 
within the Union lines on spying expeditions, they were 
always in disguise, and when they went to perpetrate a 



Il8 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

diabolical act, they always had their faces blackened, or 
were otherwise in mask. 

On a dark night, or rather about two o'clock in the 
morning, in August, 1863, ten of Moseby's gang approached 
this store. One of the men was Hfted up to, and crept 
in at, a window, and, going to the front door, unlocked and 
opened it, that some might enter while others remained 
on the outside as sentinels. Closing and locking the doOr, 
that there might be no escape of the inmates, they struck 
a light and then commenced a search for persons. They 
soon found the old man (the owner), two young men 
(his clerks or assistants), and a negro boy, all of whom 
had been asleep in the house adjoining, or in the second 
story of the store. As there were no women in the house, 
it is probable that he and his clerks had kept ** bachelors' 
hall." Of course the proprietor, clerks, and negro boy 
were very much alarmed at seeing these men with black- 
ened faces before them, and inquired what it all meant? 
They were quickly informed that it meant death to them, 
and a burning of the building, with all its contents. All 
commenced to plead for their lives, fell upon their knees, 
and besought their captors to spare their lives at least, 
whatever other punishment or destruction they might 
think proper to inflict ; but the more they plead, the more 
deaf and the more lost to every sense of humanity their 
captors seemed to become. Taking some trace-chains 
which they found in the store, the old man, the two young 
men, and the negro boy were bound, hand and foot, and 
then secured to a post or some other fixed thing within 
the store. The only reason their captors would give for 

all this was that they were " d d Yankees," that they 

had " supplied Union soldiers with food and clothing," 
that they were " traitors to the South," etc., etc., etc., all 
of which was interspersed with most horrid oaths and 
curses. When all four had been securely bound, gagged, 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. 1 19 

and fastened, and their captors had helped themselves to 
whatever they wanted of the articles in the store, they 
left the building, and in a few moments thereafter it was 
in flames. Had the bound captives within not been gagged 
they would have almost raised the dead with their cries ; 
but, as it was, nothing was heard save the fierce crackling 
of the flames, and in a little while the building and its 
contents lay in ashes, mingled and intermingled with the 
bones of the four victims. Again Moseby's oft-repeated 
maxims had found a terrible illustration, " Dead men tell 
no tales " — " Dead men never bite ! " 

The next instance of the doings of this gang of des- 
peradoes which we purpose to relate, occurred not long 
after, near Shepherdstown, Md., and was of a much milder 
type of villany. We relate it here that our readers may 
see, by contrast, that these murdering guerillas were as 
ready to do small, mean things, as great, horrid things; 
and that personal malice and personal advantage, rather 
than advantage to the Southern Confederacy, were some- 
times the incentives to their acts. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips, though a Marylander, was 
from the beginning of the agitation a strong Union man, 
and, when volunteers were called for from Maryland, did 
not hesitate a moment to offer his services in the Union 
cause, and became lieutenant-colonel of one of the Union 
Maryland regiments. He left at home, in care of his 
father, a very fine horse. Colonel Moseby heard of this 
horse, and determined to become its possessor. With 
blackened faces, he, or some of his men, went to the Phillips' 
farm at night, stole the horse, and returned to Virginia 
the same night. The fact soon after came to the ears of 
a chivalrous Confederate officer, who had known Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Phillips when at the same college with him- 
self, and who, though not liking Phillips now, disliked 
meanness still more. He informed General Breckinridge, 



I20 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

and afterwards General Lee, of the theft. General Lee 
regarded such an act as a disgrace to the whole Confeder- 
ate army, and at once sent a written order to Colonel 
Moseby to restore the horse. Colonel Moseby demurred, 
and tried to excuse the act as a legitimate capture from a 
well-known enemy; but General Lee was not to be de- 
ceived by any such sophistry, and insisted upon the return 
of the horse. The horse was returned ! 

The next instance, which occurred near Williamsport, 
Md., not long after, was of a far blacker and more diabolical 
character. A farmer living near this place, and known 
as a " Dunkard," was believed to have considerable quan- 
tities of gold and silver laid away in pots and stocking- 
legs about his house. He was not only a " neutral " in 
politics and with regard to the war, but his religion made 
him a non-combatant as well. Confederates, of course, 
denounced him as a traitor to the Southern cause, and 
thought he should at least contribute his money, if not 
his life, to defend it. He would say nothing, do nothing, 
no matter what others might say or do. One dark night 
three masked men came to his house, murdered him, and 
took his money. They were not recognized, not traced, 
nor did any one then find out, nor does any one now know, 
who really did the deed ; but it was then believed, and is still 
believed, that Moseby's guerilla band were the perpetrators. 

That same fall another instance occurred, in which 
Moseby's guerillas were certainly the actors, and which 
was of a much more warlike character. 

To cut off, gobble up, capture, or destroy paymasters 
and their escorts, quartermaster trains, and commissary 
trains. Colonel Moseby regarded as his special and par- 
ticular province, and every one of his men was on the 
special look-out for chances of this kind. On the occa- 
sion now under consideration. Brevet Major Paymaster 
Tilletson was on his way from Williamsport to Shepherds- 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. 121 

town, Md., accompanied by a captain, three lieutenants, 
and six privates — the latter and one lieutenant as an es- 
cort, the other officers returning to their respective com- 
mands from sick-leaves. Suddenly, without a moment's 
warning, Moseby, with a number of his gang, sprang out 
upon them, and, holding a cocked pistol at the head of 
each, demanded their surrender. Of course, they could 
do nothing but submit. Each officer was securely bound, 
while the privates were either killed or made their escape. 
In due time the whole party arrived within the Confed- 
erate lines, when the Union officers would probably have 
been made to illustrate Moseby's maxim, that " dead men 
tell no tales," had not an officer who had his authority 
direct from the War Department met him and ordered 
him to send the prisoners to Richmond. Moseby and his 
men helped themselves to so much of the greenbacks as 
they could conveniently carry, while tens of thousands of 
dollars were found next day scattered along the road be- 
tween Williamsport and Shepherdstown. 

Not long after the capture just related, Moseby and his 
men gobbled up another squad of officers, consisting of one 
major, two captains, and three lieutenants, who had been 
absent on sick-leaves and were then returning to their 
respective commands. After they had surrendered as 
prisoners of war, their money, watches, and everything 
they had of any value was taken from them. When fairly 
within the Confederate lines they were taken into a dense 
pine-grove, some distance off the road, and then told they 
were all to be hung so soon as the needed preparations 
could be made. Had a thunderbolt fallen at their feet 
from a clear sky, these six Union officers could not have 
been more surprised. All protested against such unmili- 
tary, unusual, inhuman treatment — some begged for life, 
some wept ; but the only reply they could get from Moseby 
was, "Prepare for death!" Providentially, as it would 
II 



122 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

seem, one young man of Moseby's band had a " heart of 
flesh," and determined, if possible, to save the lives of 
these officers. He knew that an officer who had the au- 
thority to command Moseby (the same referred to in the 
preceding incident) was at a farm-house only a few miles 
from the pine-grove in which they had stopped for tem- 
porary encampment, and where these Union officers were 
to be executed. Slipping away from his comrades, he 
hastened to the farm-house to tell this officer of what 
Moseby proposed to do. So soon as the officer was told, 
he determined to stop it, if they could only reach there 
before the men were executed. The officer and private 
mounted fresh horses, borrowed from the farmer, and rode 
with breakneck speed until they reached the grove. It 
was quite dark, but the camp-fires of Moseby and his men 
lighted them to the spot. Springing from his horse at 
the edge of the grove, the officer left the two horses in 
care of the young man and hastened to where he saw the 
camp-fire burning. Stopping for a moment to survey the 
scene before making his presence known, he observed the 
six Union officers seated on a log on the opposite side of 
the fire from where he stood, each with head dropped 
upon his breast, each with eyes glaring wildly into va- 
cancy or suffijsed with tears, each with lips pale with fear 
or moving in silent prayer, and each the very picture of 
despair in feature and attitude. Moseby was walking to 
and fro in front of them, uttering oaths and imprecations 
against them ; guards stood about them or walked their 
rounds silently; while only a little way off, in plain sight, 
others were busy throwing over or affixing ropes to 
limbs preparatory for execution. It was a scene which 
only the pencil of a Raphael might have sketched or a 
Correggio have painted. 

The officer, having fully surveyed and comprehended 
the whole scene, suddenly sprang from the darkness into 




124 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. I25 

the light of the camp-fire, and in a sharp tone demanded 
of Colonel Moseby what all this meant. 

" You see what it means," Moseby replied, pointing to 
the men who were affixing the ropes to the trees. 

" Who are these prisoners, and what have they done 
that you propose to hang them ? " asked the officer. 

** They are d — d Yankee officers whom I captured this 
afternoon, ^^vi^ purpose to hang them to-night. Dead men 
never bite," answered Moseby. 

" I purpose," said the officer, " that you do no such 
thing; that these officers be sent under guard to Richmond, 
and that you yourself report there at once under arrest." 

Of course a good deal more was said, and a great many 
oaths uttered on both sides, but the above is about the 
substance. The Union officers heard and saw all that 
was said and done, but were so dumbfounded that they 
could not say a word or utter a cry even to each other. 
When they did finally comprehend it all, they regarded 
their deliverer as one sent from heaven, and were ready 
to fall down and worship him. The transition from death 
to life was so sudden, so unexpected, that it was some 
time before they could fully realize whether they were in 
the body or out of the body, whether their natural senses 
were still of the earth, earthy, or whether they had been 
suddenly translated to another sphere, where angels only 
sing " peace on earth and good will towards men ! " 

In pursuance of the commanding officer's orders, the 
six Union officers were next day forwarded, as prisoners 
of war, to Richmond ; while Moseby himself soon after 
reported at the Adjutant General's office under arrest, to 
await such action as the authorities might think proper in 
his case. And thus, and thus, were the lives of six more 
men saved from the infernal clutch and ravenous maw of 
this hyena in human form. 

Not many days after, the same officer who had released 
11^ 



126 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. | 

from Moseby's clutch the six Union officers above spoken ! 
of, chanced to be riding along a public highway when he 
observed, at considerable distance off, in a deep gully, a j 
man entirely naked, dodging from place to place, as if in ijj 
fear or distress. The sight was so strange that the officer | 
turned his horse's head and quickly rode to the place \] 
where he had first seen the man. Here he found not the . 
one only, but three, all entirely naked, and all huddled to- || 
gether, as if to protect themselves from each other's sight. 
The officer demanded what it all meant. It was some 
moments before the men could answer at all, but when 
they did, they told the Confederate officer that they were 
three Union officers who had been gobbled up the day 
before by Moseby's guerillas, stripped of everything they 
had on earth, even to their shirts, and then left in that 
woods or ravine to do as best they might, with the warn- 
ing, however, that if they made the least alarm they would 
be again caught and either hung or shot ; that they had 
feared to approach any house in their nude state, lest they 
might be shot at as ghosts or wild men ; that they had 
not had a morsel of food for a long time, and that even 
death was preferable to longer enduring such suspense 
and torture. The officer had seen inhumanity in almost 
every possible shape, but this, he said, was a refinement 
of cruelty which shocked him more than anything he had 
ever seen before. He went to a house, not far off, and 
obtained shirts for two, and a woman's chemise for one, 
Vith such other clothing as they chanced to have. Thus, 
partially dressed, he then took them to the house, where 
they remained while the officer went to other houses of i 
the neighborhood to get enough additional clothing to 
cover their nakedness. He then had them accompany 
him to the nearest military command, where he turned 
them over as regular prisoners of war. And thus were 
three more clutched from the grasp of these bloodthirsty 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. 12/ 

hyenas. Clutched from death, too, for had they not been 
seen and rescued by this officer, they would, in all human 
probability, have been sought for by the guerillas next 
day, and either shot or hung. 

There was no month, and probably but few weeks or 
days, during the entire war that Moseby's guerillas were 
not planning or executing some villanous enterprise 
against the Union army or Union men ; but we have 
room only for a few more, and these we will select from 
his operations in the Shenandoah Valley and vicinity 
during the summer and fall of 1864. 

In August, 1864, General Sheridan was assigned to the 
command of the Middle Military Division, comprising 
the Middle Department and the Departments of Wash- 
ington, the Susquehanna, and West Virginia. Occupying 
the Shenandoah Valley, in front of Sheridan, General 
Early lay, with about eighteen thousand Confederate 
troops. To drive these troops out of, or at least further 
up, the Valley, and to keep them so employed that no 
part of them should be detached from Early to send to 
Hood in his defence of Atlanta against the attack of 
Sherman, was Sheridan's first concern during the summer 
and fall of '64. In pursuance of this plan, on the lOth 
of August, Sheridan began to move out his forces from 
Halltown for the possession of the Shenandoah Valley. 
When Early's positions were reached, he fell back, and 
continued to fall back, until he reached Fisher's Hill, 
beyond Strasburg. In pursuing Early, Sheridan had 
passed several gaps in the mountains which skirt the 
Valley, and left them unguarded. Moseby, learning of 
this, hastily got together as many of his guerillas as 
possible, dashed through Snicker's Gap on the 13th, 
struck Sheridan's supply-train, which was only guarded 
by Kenly's brigade of one hundred days' men, at Berry- 
ville, and, before the guard had fairly recovered from the 



128 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

panic, Moseby had captured the entire train, consisting of 
seventy-five wagons, from five to six hundred horses and 
mules, two hundred beef cattle, and a large quantity of 
stores. He also secured over two hundred prisoners. 
His own loss was only two killed and three wounded. 

The attack and loss were so sudden, so unexpected, and 
so exaggerated in the telling from one soldier to another, 
that they seemed for the moment to paralyze Sheridan's 
entire army ; so much so that he deemed it expedient to 
make a retrograde movement, which he continued until 
he reached, on the 2ist of August, a position about two 
miles out from Charlestown. While Sheridan was thus 
falling back from day to day, Moseby's guerillas hung 
upon his rear and flanks, treacherously capturing and 
killing whenever opportunity offered. In one instance, 
it is alleged, after taking some Union cavalrymen pris- 
oners; after, indeed, they had fully surrendered as pris- 
oners of war and been disarmed, Moseby ordered every one 
of them brutally murdered on the spot, in pursuance of 
his maxim that ** dead men never bite." In retaliation 
for this terrible outrage, Sheridan ordered that from 
thenceforth every house and barn of these half-guerillas, 
half-farmers in the Valley, that could possibly be reached 
by his cavalrymen, should be destroyed. 

Not only in retaliation for this one act, but for scores 
of other acts of a like or worse character, of which they 
were cognizant, and with a view to strike terror into the 
minds of such men as had been, and still were, harboring 
and encouraging these guerillas — men who were farmers 
by day and robbers by night — both General Grant and 
General Sheridan determined to inaugurate a wholesale 
system of devastation in the localities where these out- 
rages had been mostly carried on — especially in the Vir- 
ginia counties of Shenandoah, Rockingham, Loudon, and 
Fauquier. As a result of this policy— or, more properly 



GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. I2g 

speaking, as a result of the outrages which had been perpe- 
trated by Mosebys guerillas (for the policy would never 
have been thought of but for these outrages) — the fol- 
lowing destruction of property is reported to have oc- 
curred in the four counties named, between the ist of 
October, when the policy was inaugurated, and the fore- 
part of December (1864), when Merritt's cavalry division 
crossed the Blue Ridge, and made a grand raid through 
the upper part of Loudon and Fauquier counties : 

In Shenandoah and Rockingham counties — according 
to the official report of a commissioner of the revenue to 
the Richmond authorities — "there were burned 18 dwell- 
ing-houses, 215 barns, 11 grist-mills, 9 water saw-mills, 
2 steam saw-mills, i furnace, 2 forges, i fulling-mill, be- 
sides a number of smaller buildings, such as stables, etc. 
The quantity of grain destroyed is immense. I cannot 
give you any idea of the amount of grain, hay, fodder, 
etc., destroyed, but the quantity is very large." 

In Loudon and Fauquier counties — according to the 
official report made by General Sheridan to General Grant 
at the time — the property burned and captured was as 
follows: Burned — barns, 1168; mills, 49; tanneries, i; 
factories, 2 ; distilleries, 6 ; tons of hay, 27,620 ; bushels 
of wheat, 51,500; bushels of corn, 62,900; bushels of 
oats, 2000; haystacks, 1121; wheatstacks, 57; stacks of 
other grains, 104. Captured — horses, 388 ; mules, 8 ; 
cattle, 5520; sheep, 5837; swine, 1141. Total estimated 
value of property destroyed and captured in these two 
counties, ;^2, 508,756. 

It should be added, as a further reason for the destruc- 
tion of wheat, corn, hay, etc., that General Lee had been 
drawing his supplies largely from these four counties, 
and it was therefore for the purpose of crippling Lee's 
army, as well as to punish these farmers for harboring 

I 



130 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

and aiding Moseby's guerillas, that this wholesale de- 
struction of property was planned and executed. 

Those who have witnessed the distress following the 
burning of a single dwelling-house, or a single barn with 
contents, in a neighborhood of farmers, can form some 
faint idea of the distress which must have followed the 
burning of eighteen dwelling-houses, and 1383 barns, 
with all their contents, and with all the stacks of grain, 
hay, and fodder surrounding them ! Even the thought 
is fearful, — how much more the reality ! After what we 
have related of the operations of Moseby's guerillas — 
and what we have told is not a hundredth part of what 
might be told — none of our readers, we think, will ques- 
tion the propriety of the caption to this chapter, " Gue- 
rillas ON THE War-path — Cunning and Duplicity Prompt- 
ing the Actors ; " nor, after learning of the destruction of 
property which followed, will any one, we think, question 
the third line of the caption, ''Destruction in the Back- 
ground T* 




132 



CHAPTER IX. 

WHAT BECAME OF SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE 

WAR. 

THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR PROMPTING THE ACTORS. " WE 

NEBER SEED 'eM ANY MORE." 

IT is a well-attested fact, that there were many less 
slaves, or those who had been slaves, in the United 
States on the 9th of April, 1865, when General Lee sur- 
rendered to General Grant, near the Appomattox Court- 
House, than when the war commenced by the firing on 
Fort Sumter, on the 12th of April, 186 1. Had there 
been no war, and had the ratio of increase been the same 
from 1 86 1 to 1865 as it had been for the previous four 
years, there would have been several hundred thousand 
more in 1865 than there were in 1861. 

It is also well known that from and after the 1st of 
January, 1863, when President Lincoln's proclamation 
of freedom to the slave — issued on the 22d of Sep- 
tember, 1862 — went into effect, many hundreds, if not 
thousands, of those who had been slaves were taken into 
the military service of the United States; that, when 
captured by the Confederate forces, they were not recog- 
nized as prisoners of war, but in many cases, as at Fort 
Pillow, were massacred like so many dogs ; that thousands 
were destroyed in this way, and that many other thousands 
died on fields of battle ; that many during the war tried 
to escape, but, being overtaken, were killed on sight by 
their former masters or their agents ; that the excessive 
amount of labor which they were compelled to perform 
" 133 



134 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

for their masters on plantations, and for the Confederate 
government, in digging rifle-pits and throwing up fortifi- 
cations, lessened their power of reproduction, and caused 
thousands of premature deaths ; but, notwithstanding all 
these facts, there still remains a very large number to be 
accounted for; and to account for these in part, if not 
wholly, is the object of the present chapter. 

The facts which we shall relate in this connection can- 
not fail to be as startling to our readers as they were to 
us. They have never before been related, either in book or 
newspaper form ; nor would they now be, but that time 
has wiped out the passions of the war and the limits of 
personal responsibility, and made the facts legitimate for 
the purposes of history. 

That our readers may understand that no animosity 
towards the South, or the Southern Confederacy, nor sym- 
pathy with the slave in any way, has led to the divulging 
of these facts, we may say that Colonel Abercrombie, to 
whom we are indebted for the facts, is a Southern man 
(a Baltimorian) by birth, and from his earliest recollection 
was taught to look upon the negro as a different race from 
our own — as a chattel, to be bought and sold, the same 
as a horse or cow ; that he was a captain in the Thirteenth 
United States Infantry in the early stages of the war, but, 
being convinced that his duty lay with the South, re- 
signed his commission in the United States army, went 
South, joined the Confederate service, and remained as an 
officer in that service until the close of the war; and that 
it was not until soon after the war, when he went from 
New York to Galveston by steamship, and from Galveston 
travelled nearly all over Texas on horseback, that he be- 
came fully aware of the facts which he detailed to us, and 
which we now purpose to communicate to our readers. 

The Colonel, Captain Philip Lander, and three others, 
left Galveston for Brownsville about the middle of June, 



SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. I35 

1865. From Galveston to Houston they went by steam- 
boat ; at Houston they purchased mules, and from thence- 
forth pursued their journey on muleback. At Columbus 
they found a considerable number of Confederate soldiers, 
who had belonged to General Kirby Smith's command, 
and were then on their way to their homes. At Bastrop 
they found two companies of United States volunteers 
doing guard duty. At Austin, the capital of the State, 
they found General Sturges with four companies of the 
regiment which he commanded, the Seventh United States 
Cavalry. About the middle of July, they left Austin for 
San Antonio. On the road they saw two men in one 
place, and one in another, hanging by the neck to limbs 
of trees, who had been strung up there by roving banditti 
— probably on the suspicion that they were Union men — 
and left to hang there as a warning to others. At San 
Antonio they found General Magruder, who claimed that 
he had not yet surrendered, though " lying around loose," 
and, as they afterwards learned, was probably looking 
after the interests of slave exporters, rather than the in- 
terests of the Southern Confederacy. It was the latter part 
of August when they left San Antonio for Brownsville. 
After five days' travel from San Antonio, and just before 
reaching the branch road which leads to Brazos San Diego, 
from the main military road to Brownsville, they over- 
took a gang of from six to eight hundred negroes, in 
charge of, and driven along by, about forty white men, 
part Americans and part Mexicans. The negroes con- 
sisted of men, women, and children. There were no old 
men or old women among them. Some were handcuffed 
together ; others were tied together with ropes ; others 
not bound in any way. Some women were carrying 
children in their arms. All were on foot and seemed 
weary from long travel. Their drivers were all on horse- 
back, some at the front, some at the sides, and some in 



136 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the rear, all armed with pistols, all with whips in their 
hands, and all with curses in their mouths, which were 
hurled at the poor negroes on the slightest provocation. 
Like cattle drivers, or worse, those at the sides and rear 
were constantly hallooing, cursing, and saying to the 
negroes, '* Git along ! git along ! Faster ! faster ! " with 
an oath between each command. Many of the women, 
especially such as were carrying children, seemed ready 
to faint from exhaustion, and often turned their faces be- 
seechingly, and with tears in their eyes, towards their 
drivers, but their pleadings were only met by curses, still 
louder and still deeper, from their inhuman captors and 
drivers. Behind the gangwere three two-wheeled carts and 
an old ambulance, in the first of which rations, etc., were 
carried; in the ambulance, besides old clothes, lay a 
woman whom the drivers said " was about to kid." 

The Colonel and his party rode along with this negro- 
driving party some three or four hours, meanwhile gather- 
ing from their own lips all they could relative to the 
character and extent of the business; how, when, and where 
inaugurated; how and to whom they sold their human 
chattels ; what the profits of the business, and with whom 
the profits were divided ; what part, if any, the former 
owner got, etc., etc. The drivers were not at all disposed 
to be communicative, nevertheless a considerable amount 
of information was drawn from them, part of which led 
to other clues, which, being followed up, led to additional 
information, the whole resulting in a development of the 
facts embraced in this chapter. 

When the branch road before spoken of was reached, 
the negro-drivers, with their drove of human chattels, 
turned off for Brazos San Diego, while the Colonel and 
his party pursued their way to Brownsville (opposite 
Matamoras), which they reached on the following day. 
Here, too, they saw a considerable number of negroes in 



SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. I37 

confinement, awaiting boats to take them down the Rio 
Grande River and thence to a market. From Brownsville 
the Colonel and his party went into Mexico, where they 
remained about six months. In February, 1866, the 
Colonel returned to Texas, and while stopping some time 
with Mr. Higgins, a large landowner and extensive cat- 
tle raiser, near Bastrop, overheard a Mexican ask his son, 
William Higgins, to get up a fandango at his saw-mills 
and invite all the negroes of the neighborhood, in oijder 
that he (the Mexican) and his party might have oppor- 
tunity to seize some of the negroes and run them off to 
a market. This, it will be borne in mind, was about ten 
months after the close of the war, about six months since 
the Colonel had seen the drove of negroes on the road to 
Brazos San Diego, and about three years after President 
Lincoln's proclamation went into effect, declaring freedom 
to every slave within the limits of the Southern Confed- 
eracy. 

Of course, the Colonel was surprised at hearing such a 
proposition, and, though as much of a pro-slavery man 
as any one could be after all that had transpired, still felt 
curious to know all about this new business, or old busi- 
ness^ as it might happen to be, of kidnapping, running 
off, and selling such as had been slaves. His inquiries 
resulted in developing the following facts : 

For many years prior to the war the breeding and rais- 
ing of negroes had become as much of a standard busi- 
ness in Virginia as the planting and raising of cotton had 
formerly been, or as the breeding and raising of cattle 
still is in Texas. As the lands became poorer in Virginia 
from long cultivation, the raising of crops became less 
and less profitable, until it was finally discovered that to 
raise about enough of crops to supply themselves and 
their negroes with bread and clothing, and to devote all 
else of their thoughts and energies to the raising of ne- 
12* 



138 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

groes for market and use in States where the climate and 
quality of soil made the raising of cotton and rice a re- 
munerative business, would, in the long run, be much 
more profitable to them. This, therefore, became the 
general sense of the State, and from thenceforth was gen- 
erally pursued throughout the State. This necessitated 
middlemen, or slave merchants — such as would purchase 
the slave of the Virginia farmer at such price as might be 
agreed upon, take him or her to his place of business, 
put them in the best possible trim for a market, and then 
take them off in droves to South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- 
bama, or wherever else needed, and sell them at private 
or public sale for the best prices they could obtain. 
Whatever inhumanity there might be in such business, it 
certainly resulted in large profits, especially to the dealers, 
and hence it is not at all surprising that a great many 
should have been engaged in it. 

When the war commenced there were hundreds, if not 
thousands, of these slave-dealers throughout the South. 
Some went into the army; some, who had well-filled 
purses, fled to Cuba, to Canada, to Nassau, to England ; 
while others, too poor to get away, too cowardly to fight, 
too lazy to work, and too ignorant to do any business 
other than what they had been doing, remained in the 
country and continued to ply their vocation whenever 
and wherever opportunity offered. It was a fixed policy 
with the Confederate Government not to allow slaves to be 
taken or sold beyond their bounds, and that every possi- 
ble precaution be taken to prevent the escape of slaves 
into the Union lines; but the Government had no ob- 
jection to the sale and transfer of slaves from Virginia to 
Georgia, or to any other of the Confederate States, and 
as the Union army advanced into Virginia, rather encour- 
aged such sales and transfers, to prevent the escape of 
slaves into the Union lines. The effect of this was to 



SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. I39 

make an active and very profitable business for slave- 
dealers, and to largely increase the number of slaves in 
the more southern of the Confederate States. 

When, besides going into Virginia, Union armies com- 
menced forward movements into Kentucky and Tennessee, 
into Missouri and Arkansas, it was deemed expedient to 
run off a large number of the slaves of those States into 
Texas, the better to secure them from capture by the 
Union armies, and have them where they could be shipped 
to foreign ports, if not thereafter needed by the States of 
the Confederacy, or if, peradventure, the Confederacy it- 
self might fail of success. When, on the i6th of Novem- 
ber, 1864, Sherman commenced his march "from Atlanta 
to the sea," a like necessity of getting slaves beyond the 
reach of Union soldiers existed in all the Gulf States, 
and so far as it was possible to get them into Texas it 
was done. How many thousands, yea, how many hun- 
dreds of thousands were thus driven into Texas from 
other Confederate States, God only knows, or will ever 
know ! 

This particular route was made necessary because of 
the blockading of Southern ports ; and because once in 
Texas, they could be held there until the result of the 
war was known. It was not, as before stated, the policy 
of the Confederate Government to have the slaves taken 
beyond their control, as the corner-stone of the Confed- 
eracy was to be slavery, and the more they could have 
of it the greater, they thought, would be their prosperity; 
nor was it the policy of the slave-dealer to take his chattel 
beyond the reach of the best market in the world, so long 
as there was a reasonable prospect of that market being 
kept open. In Texas the dealer had the double chance — 
either to return with his human chattels to the Confederate 
States, in case it became an established government, or, 
if that failed, then to ship them from Brazos San Diego, 



140 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

from Brownsville, from Corpus Christi, from Powder Horn, 
or from any other port that might not be blockaded, to 
Cuba, to Brazil, or wherever else slavery existed and a 
market could be found. These slave-dealers watched the 
result of the contest between the North and the South 
with the same interest that stock-jobbers and gold-gam- 
blers watched the rise and fall of stocks, and the rise and 
fall of gold, when they had a large quantity of either on 
hand, and were waiting to turn their speculation to the 
best possible account. When news would reach them 
that the Union armies were carrying everything before 
them, off would go one or more cargoes of negroes to 
Cuba or Brazil. When, by the next mail probably, news 
would reach them that the Confederate armies were meet- 
ing with great successes, making it probable that a Southern 
Confederacy would be established, they would regret that 
they had sent any away, and hold the firmer to those they 
had left. The price at which slaves could be sold — espe- 
cially at forced or hurried sales — in the Brazil and Cuban 
markets, was far less than what they could reasonably 
hope to obtain in the Southern Confederacy, provided it 
became an acknowledged government. 

When shipments of negroes were commenced from the 
Texan ports heretofore named, and how often, or to what 
extent they were made, we are unable to say definitely ; 
but the probabilities are that they commenced immediately 
after President Lincoln issued his proclamation of freedom 
to the slaves, September 22, 1862, and were made, to a 
greater or less extent, thereafter as news reached the 
dealers elevating or depressing their hopes of a perma- 
nent Southern Confederacy. After Sherman commenced 
his march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, in May, 1864, 
and especially after he resumed His march from Atlanta 
to Savannah, in November, 1864, and still more especially 
after he commenced his march from Savannah to Charles- 



SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. I4I 

ton, and thence to Richmond, in January, 1865, the slave- 
dealers in Texas thought they saw the handwriting on 
the wall, " Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin " — " Thou art 
weighed in the balances, and art found wanting," and from 
thenceforth every steamer, schooner, or water-craft of any 
kind, that could carry ten or more persons, and which 
they could possibly procure in any way, was secured to 
run the negroes from Texas to such markets as it were 
possible to reach. They could not be taken to the prin- 
cipal open ports of either Cuba or Brazil, lest, being seen 
by an anti-slavery man, the facts might be reported to 
United States consuls and thence to the United States 
government ; but they were taken to out-of-the-way places 
along the coast of both countries, where copartners in 
the business were in waiting to receive and make further 
disposition of them. The money received from sales 
was sent back to the copartners in Texas by the partner 
or agent bringing out the last lot, and thus a flow of 
negroes in one direction, and a flow of money, with which 
to buy more, in another direction, was kept up constantly. 
But it was not necessary in all cases to make purchases 
and payments. Indeed, towards the close of the war, 
actual purchases were seldom made, and after the close 
of the war, none at all, though the business still remained 
active. The plan pursued was this : a dealer would go to 
a planter, to a farmer, or to a man living in town or city, 
and ask him how many slaves he owned. The answer 
would be ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, or more, as the 
case might be ; but he would probably add, immediately 
after, that only one-half, or one-fourth, or less were then 
with him — the others were hired out, or with the army, 
helping to dig trenches, or running at large, he did not 
know where. The dealer, after explaining to the owner 
the nature of his business, would propose to take from 
him a written bill of sale of all the negroes he owned 



142 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

take his own chances of catching them when and where 
he could, send them to a market when and where he 
could, and divide with the owner whatever might be the 
net result of sales. The owner, reasoning from the stand- 
point that " a half loaf is better than no bread," and that 
if the Confederacy proved a failure he would get nothing 
at all for his slaves, would enter into such written agree- 
ment with the dealer. With this in his pocket, to assure 
him from interference from pro-slavery men, and to prove 
to all who might question him that his business was of a 
" mercaiitile !' rather than of a kidnapping, character, the 
dealer and his agents would go forth to seize the negroes 
— men, women, and children — for whom he had bills of 
sale in his pocket. If resisted by a white man, out would 
come his bill of sale to prove title ; if resisted by a black 
man, he was shot down or hung on the spot ; if resisted 
by the alleged slave, he was at once handcuffed, gagged, 
and marched away ; if identity was questioned by a white 
man, the questioner had to prove property, while the bill 
of sale held by the dealer was regarded as prima facie 
evidence of his right to the person claimed ; if identity 
was questioned by the person seized, or by any other 
colored man, he was laughed at, gagged, or shot down. 
In this way thousands were seized, thousands driven from 
where seized into Texas, and tens of thousands run from 
Texas to Brazilian and Cuban ports. 

After the close of the war, the fact that they had been 
made free by proclamation and by law spread rapidly 
among those who had been slaves, and from thenceforth 
the business of kidnapping and running them off became 
much more dangerous. While travelling through Texas, 
our informant met many negroes on the road with pistols 
at their sides, or guns upon their shoulders, and, when 
asked what it meant, they would reply, " Des am dan- 
gerous times, sa ; we has to protect ourselves, you know." 



Jl 



SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. I43 

He saw, too, as before stated, both black men and white 
men hanging to the limbs of trees by the roadside, some 
of whom, doubtless, had been hung there because of re- 
sistance to kidnappers. All manner of means were de- 
vised by these kidnappers to catch the negroes when and 
where they could make the least resistance and the least 
noise. Even ten months after the war, as before stated, 
one of these dealers — the partner, probably, of an exten- 
sive firm, made up of both Americans and Mexicans — 
proposed to William Higgins to get up a fandango, or 
dance, at his saw-mills, and invite thereto all the negroes 
in the neighborhood, for the purpose, and only for the 
purpose, of enabling these kidnappers to seize and run 
off as many as could be ensnared within the trap, or got 
hold of; and, as we have seen, it was four months after 
the war that the drove of from six to eight hundred ne- 
groes were seen on the road to Brazos San Diego. 

It will be a wonder with some readers how it was pos- 
sible to continue such a business after Union troops had 
been stationed at Austin, the capital of the State, under 
so able a commander as General Sturges ; and after they 
had been stationed at Bastrop, and at other large towns 
throughout the State. The explanation is simply this : 
While the sentiment of the Union troops was entirely op- 
posed to any such traffic, and while, in pursuance of law, 
their duty plainly was to hang any man whom they found 
engaged in such a business, yet the sentiment of the white 
people, among whom the troops were located, was largely, 
if not universally, in favor of the traffic, and hence they 
would not inform against those who were engaged in it ; 
and had the troops learned of, and attempted to arrest, 
a(ty of the parties, every white man of the town or neigh- 
borhood would have risen in arms and attempted the 
I rescue of the parties. Law, without public sentiment to 
sustain it, is a dead letter, or nearly so, under all circum- 



144 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

stances, and where public sentiment is decidedly opposed 
to a law, its execution is next to impossible. 

Another wonder, scarcely less than the first, will be 
with some readers, how it could be possible that honora- 
ble men — men whose personal characters before the war 
were above reproach, either from Southern or Northern 
men; men who had led consistent Christian lives, and 
who had been regarded as bright and shining lights in 
their respective church organizations, could permit such 
things to be done before their very eyes, and look on 
indifferently, if not approvingly. The explanation is this : 
Most of this business of running off slaves was done with- 
out the knowledge of the Confederate authorities. Indeed, 
had it come to their ears during the earlier stages of the 
war they would have done what they could to prevent it, 
however indifferent they might have been to it during 
the last year or last few months of the war. But a far 
weightier reason is, that what seems so heinous, so dia- 
bolical, so criminal indeed, to a Northern anti-slavery 
man, was, in the eyes of a Southern pro-slavery man, 
only a fair business transaction, based on Bible authority, 
State law, and the law of self-preservation. They regarded 
these negroes as much the property of those who had 
owned them, as horses or cattle would have been. Nor 
did they regard the proclamation of President Lincoln 
and the acts of Congress, whereby slaves were declared 
free, with any more awe or respect than they would have 
regarded a like proclamation, or like acts of Congress, if 
issued or made with regard to horses or cattle. Hence, 
to their consciences it was no more of a sin to seize and 
run off to a market these negroes during the war, or even 
after the war, than it would have been to seize or run c^ 
from the grasp of an enemy a like number of horses or cat- 
tle. That conscience is largely dependent on surroundings, 
and on education, is no longer a disputable question among 



SLAVES DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. I45 

mental philosophers. That the cannibal, who kills and eats 
his fellow-man, is just as conscientious in what he does as 
the man who kills and eats a lamb, is now a generally ad- 
mitted fact. With this philosophic truth as a stand-point 
from which to look at the subject, who can doubt that 
General Polk, who for so many years had been the univer- 
sally respected and highly beloved Bishop of the diocese 
of Louisiana, was just as conscientious in his advocacy of 
slavery, and in his defence of the Southern Confederacy, 
as Bishop Simpson was in his opposition to slavery and 
his advocacy of the Union. Who can doubt that General 
Pendleton, who had been for so many years a reverend 
doctor in the Episcopal Church, and the head of a semi- 
nary near Alexandria, Va., and who never gave the order 
to fire without first raising his eyes heavenward and say- 
ing, "God have mercy on their souls," was just as con- 
scientious in the belief that slavery was justified by the 
Bible, and approved of by God, as John Wesley was in the 
belief that " slavery was the sum of all villanies " ? Who 
can doubt that General Jackson (" Stonewall "), with 
whom the Bible was a constant companion, who prayed 
while he marched, who prayed when he encamped, who 
prayed even while directing the movements of a battle, 
was just as conscientious in his belief that slavery was 
right, as Wendell Phillips was that slavery was wrong ; 
just as conscientious in the belief that the Southern Con- 
federacy should succeed, in order to make slavery per- 
petual in this country, as General Birney was that the 
Union cause should succeed, if for no other reason than 
to wipe out slavery once and forever from the United 
States. This, certainly, is the charitable view to take of 
the whole subject ; nor, with our present knowledge of 
ethics and mental philosophy, is it any more charitable 
than true. 

Reason about it as we may, however, the fact remains 
13 K 



146 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

that tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, 
were driven out and run out of the United States in the 
manner indicated, and are now, if still alive, toiling as 
slaves in other lands ; and that many a father, many a 
mother, many a sister, and many a brother, after their 
loved ones had been thus kidnapped and taken away, 
without any knowledge upon the part of their friends, 
have had reason to cry out in the bitterness of their 
souls, " We neber seed 'em any more /" 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CONFEDERACY AS SEEN FROM WITHIN 
PRIDE, PASSION, AND WANT IN THE BACKGROUND. 

SINCE the war, we have seen, and had long conversa- 
tions with, a reverend doctor, whom we had known 
for many years previous to the war, who resided in Vir- 
ginia when the war commenced, was among the first to 
take part in it, and who continued in the service until the 
war closed. We have also met other Confederate officers 
since the war, some of whom had extraordinary facilities 
for obtaining information while the war continued. From 
all these we learned much beyond anything we had ever 
known before, or ever seen in newspapers or books. To 
put on record some of the things so learned is the object 
of the present chapter. 

The South well knew, in the very beginning of the 
contest, that in point of numbers, in wealth, and in ma- 
terial resources, it was greatly inferior to the North. They 
had hope, however, of dividing the North, or, rather, of 
having the North divide against itself; and had the one- 
hundredth part of the promises made them by Northern 
men been kept, there would indeed have been a division 
of force, as well as a division of political sentiment, in 
the North ; and the result of such division might have 
given the final victory to the Confederacy, instead of to 
the Union cause. But what the South relied upon still 
more, was assistance from England. They had been 
led to believe that King Cotton was almost, if not quite, 
13* 149 



150 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

as powerful in England as Queen Victoria, and they had 
laid the " flattering unction to their souls " that so soon 
as King Cotton saw those who had made him king in dis- 
tress, he would rush, pell-mell, to their rescue ; scatter 
the Yankee blockading squadrons to the winds ; throw 
open all the Southern ports ; bring men, ammunition, cloth- 
ing, and provisions to exchange for their cotton, and 
thus, beyond any reasonable doubt, insure success to the 
Southern cause. 

As well assured as they felt of all this, they still re- 
garded it as important to keep all the while the "best 
foot foremost;" to keep up an appearance of strength, 
however weak they might be ; to keep up a show of in- 
dependence, however much they might be hoping and 
praying for help. Like as an expectant bride, though she 
has the plighted faith of her lover, will continue to smile, 
to dress, to allure in every way she can, up to the very 
hour of the marriage ceremony, so the South continued 
to smile, to dress, to allure, in every way she could, her 
Northern allies, who had solemnly plighted their faith to 
her, and her English sympathizers, whose pecuniary in- 
terests lay all in that direction, and these things she 
continued to do up to the very moment when the Con- 
federacy collapsed, and when it was found that nothing 
was left of the ^'g^ but the shell. As our reverend friend 
said to us, over and over again, and as other Confederate 
officers have said to us, over and over again, " none but 
those within the lines, and behind the scenes, knew of the 
destitution, of the suffering, of the heart-aches, of the 
skeletons within closets while those who held the keys 
were smiling as if they were full of good things, of the 
turns and shifts which not only the army but which 
almost every family in the South had to make, in order 
to preserve life, and yet keep up a fair outside show, 
during those four terrible years of war." And now for 



THE CONFEDERACY AS SEEN FROM WITHIN. I5I 

the illustrations — little or none of which has ever before 
been published. 

After the first year of the war, so much in want of food 
was the Confederate army at times, that, in one instance, 
an officer, with an escort, travelled sixty miles before he 
could purchase food enough to load one six-mule wagon 
which he had with him. Even then they had to go 
within the Union lines, and run very great risk of being 
captured. 

The same officer from whom we learned the above 
incident, also told us that, on one occasion, he and the 
men with him were so ravenous from hunger that he shot 
an old sow that had had a large litter of pigs only the day 
before, and that while he and his fellow officers ate the 
meat (if meat it could be called) of the old sow, his men 
ate not only the one-day-old pigs, but even the very 
entrails of the mother. 

On another occasion this same officer shot an opossum 
that had just been having its young, and while, under 
ordinary circumstances, he could no more have eaten its 
flesh than he could have eaten a viper, yet such was his 
hunger at the time that the dish seemed palatable. Often, 
he said, he had gone for a whole day, and occasionally 
two or three days at a time, without one " square meal ;" 
and this he knew to be an ordinary experience among 
officers of the Confederate army, especially during the 
last year of the war, and largely so during the two or three 
last years of the war. Certainly, if there was an officer 
in that army who had opportunities to live on the " fat of 
the land," he was one of them, and if he suffered thus, 
God only knows what must have been the sufferings of 
others ! 

Early in the war, coffee became scarce, and, during the 
last year or two, hardly to be had at all within the lines 
of the Confederacy. To procure it, all manner of devices 



152 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

were resorted to. On one occasion, when two sentinels 
were within calling distance of each other — one on either 
side of an intervening deep ravine — a Confederate officer 
present told his sentinel to ask the Union sentinel whether 
his company had any coffee which they would exchange 
for tobacco. The Union sentinel inquired of his captain, 
and after a time hallooed back that they had of their com- 
pany rations a bag of coffee left over, which they would 
exchange for tobacco, provided they could make a good 
trade. The Confederate officer instructed his sentinel to 
reply that they would give twenty-five boxes of plug 
tobacco for one bag of coffee. The offer was accepted, 
and as soon after as the coffee and the tobacco could be 
brought to the spot, the Union sentinel rolled down the 
bag of coffee, the Confederate sentinel rolled down the 
twenty-five boxes of tobacco, to the foot of the ravine, 
when, with assistants, each took away the article traded 
for — hostilities being suspended meanwhile. Each of the 
parties was highly pleased with the trade. Before the 
war one or two boxes of tobacco would have brought in 
the New York market as much, if not more, than one bag 
of coffee. 

Pins and needles became so scarce in the Confederacy 
that at least one man — a Mr. Webster Sly, of Charles 
County, Md., brother to a celebrated doctor in that vicin- 
ity — made quite a fortune by smuggling trunks full of 
these articles across the Union lines and selling them 
within the Confederate lines. 

As early as 1863, one of our informants sav/ dogs in 
the streets of Charleston so emaciated that they could 
scarcely walk, and at one time saw one of these animals 
leaning against a fence and chewing upon an old shoe. 
In that city and in Richmond he knew of families who 
had once been wealthy that were, during the war, com- 
pelled to sell not only their clothing, but even their beds. 



THE CONFEDERACY AS SEEN FROM WITHIN. I53 

to procure food to live upon. Our reverend friend him- 
self, though at one time the owner of a handsome house 
and of slaves, had, while at Petersburg, been compelled 
to live, with his wife and daughter, in a garret, and upon 
food that a dog would scarcely have eaten under ordinary- 
circumstances. 

Not only did such destitution prevail throughout the 
Confederate States during the war, but still worse evils 
prevailed, engendered by pride, jealousy, and passion. 
While this fact was carefully concealed from Northern 
eyes and ears, and from English eyes and ears, yet it pre- 
vailed to an alarming extent, and when occasionally it 
would burst forth in such violence as to cause death, no 
mention of the fact was made in the newspapers at Rich- 
mond lest it might reach Northern or English ears. 

Almost at the beginning of the war two parties sprang 
up in the Confederacy, known as the " Davis party" and 
the " Stephens party." President Davis advocated one 
line of policy ; Vice-President Stephens advocated another 
line of policy. Their respective friends took sides, each 
with his chief, and so bitter became the strife between 
the two, that when the Government was removed from 
Montgomery to Richmond Mr. Stephens would not come 
there to preside over the deliberations of the Senate. At 
one time, in 1863, the strife between their respective par- 
tisans in the Confederate Congress, then meeting in 
Richmond, became so great, that a Virginian (a Davis 
man) shot and killed a Georgian (a Stephens man) upon 
the floor of the House for some Avords uttered in debate. 
The excitement for the moment was intense. Pistols and 
bowie-knives were drawn by dozens of Congressmen, and 
it seemed that many additional lives would have to be 
sacrificed then and there before the affray could end, but 
erelong quiet was restored and the dead body of the 
slain member removed from the chamber. Our informant 



154 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

saw the dead body as it was carried along the street, in- 
quired after and learned all the incidents of the bloody- 
affair, but neither on that day nor on any day thereafter 
was a word said about it in the Richmond newspapers. 

Another cause of much irritation, much jealousy, and 
much bad blood, arose in the appointing of general of- 
ficers for the Confederate army. Mr. Davis, being him- 
self a "West-Pointer," it was not unnatural that he should 
prefer, in all cases, graduates of West Point ; but, as the 
people of the several States had to furnish not only the 
money, but the men for the army, it was not unnatural 
that they should desire to see some of their leading citi- 
zens in command of the men they furnished. The people 
believed that brains were quite as essential to success as 
technical military knowledge, and were not willing to trust 
all their interests, personal and pecuniary, to the direction 
of such as knew little or nothing beyond military tactics. 
The demand became so strong and so persistent that the 
administration yielded, so far as to appoint Bishop Polk, 
Rev. Dr. Pendleton, John C. Breckinridge, and Bradley 
Johnson, to generalships ; but beyond this, few, if any, 
held high positions in the army, other than West-Point- 
ers. Towards the close of the war, General Lee said, at 
a dinner given to army officers, at Orange Court-House, 
near his headquarters, that from thenceforth the " policy 
of the government would be to give promotion to such, 
and such only, as fairly earned it on the field of battle, 
without regard to their previous military education." 
This speech was reported at once in every part of the 
Confederacy, and as he was presumed to speak by author- 
ity, it had the effect to quiet, in a great measure, the ex- 
citement which had so long existed relative to military 
appointments. 

Another source of demoralization, and, consequently, 
of weakness in the Confederacy, was the disposition to 



THE CONFEDERACY AS SEEN FROM WITHIN. I55 

gamble diXnong so many of its officers and leading citi- 
zens. At Richmond, while so many, who had been 
affluent, were almost starving; while the gradual dis- 
appearance, and finally the entire absence, of cats and 
dogs in the city, proved that meat other than lamb 
was supplying the tables of many of its citizens ; while 
even the highest officers of State were, at times, sorely 
perplexed about food for their families, the gambling 
houses of that city were doing a splendid business, and 
furnishing free lunches to their patrons far superior to 
what could be found upon the table of President Davis 
or any member of his cabinet. Indeed, it became well 
known among Confederate army officers, and among the 
leading gentlemen of the city as well, that the best eata- 
bles and the best drinkables to be had in the Confederacy 
were to be had at these gambling saloons, and many a 
one was induced to patronize them on this account more 
than on any other. It was said that the proprietors of 
these saloons could obtain, and did obtain, supplies from 
the North, when the highest officers and the wealthiest 
men of Richmond could not obtain them. How done, 
except through pals and noted gamblers, some of whom 
were well-known spies, and often in Washington, was 
never known. Notwithstanding the expensive free lunches 
given by these gambling houses every day, they made im- 
mense amounts of money. What they made in gold 
and greenbacks they carefully stored away, or made use 
of in the purchase of supplies. What they got in Con- 
federate money they invested in real estate, so that, when 
the war ended, the gamblers of Richmond owned more 
real estate than any other class of persons, if not more 
than all other classes combined. What was true of Rich- 
mond, in all these particulars, was probably true of every 
other city in the Confederacy. 

Still another source of weakness in the Confederacy 



156 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

was the lack of confideiice, almost from the beginning, in 
the currency issued by the government, or by its author- 
ity. It was thought to be a terrible condition of things 
in the North when a gold dollar commanded $2.%^ in 
greenbacks; when muslin, that had sold for ten cents 
per yard, sold for thirty; when coffee, sugar, meats, 
almost everything, commanded double, and, in some 
cases, treble the prices at which they had sold before 
the war; but these were as nothing when compared 
with the South. A single chicken leg, or a single 
chicken wing, with a small piece of corn-bread tied to 
it, sold at from one to two dollars at many of the rail- 
road depots ; a drink of brandy or whiskey, at the Ballard 
House, Richmond, cost five dollars ; a single meal, at the 
same house, ten dollars ; a gentleman's dressing-gown, 
smuggled through from the North by a land blockade-run- 
ner, sold, in Richmond, for eleven hundred dollars. Of 
course, all these prices mean Confederate currency. Such 
as were wise enough to invest their Confederate money 
in real estate had something of real value after the war. 
Such as failed to do this, had large amounts in what pur- 
ported to be money, but not one penny in real value, after 
the war ended. Every dollar of gold or silver that came 
within the Confederate lines, after the second year of the 
war, was either hoarded or hid away, or expended for 
needed supplies, in which case it soon found its way back 
to the North or to England. 

And thus we close this tenth scene of the drama, in 
which we have endeavored to give our readers a glimpse 
of the Southern Confederacy as seen from within; and to 
show, too, that pride, passion, and want formed a fearful 
picture in the background. 




I earl), 
porfy 



CHAPTER XI. 

HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. 
KINDNESS AND POWER (hAND-IN-HAND) BEHIND THE SCENES. 

THE city of Alexandria is situated about seven miles 
below Washington, on the Potomac River. It was 
at one time a part of the District of Columbia, but, by 
a subsequent arrangement, was retroceded to Virginia. 
Prior to the war it was a place of considerable business; 
contained, probably, thirty thousand inhabitants; had 
some fine streets, and a few handsome buildings ; and 
was a favorite place of resort, as well as of residence, for 
the more wealthy and influential citizens of that part of 
Virginia. 

After the war commenced, by the firing on Fort Sumter, 
the first object of the United States Government was to 
save Washington from falling into the hands of the enemy. 
Between the i8th of May and the 23d of June, 1861, 
thirty-one fully organized regiments and three indepen- 
dent companies arrived in that city. Of these, four were 
from Pennsylvania, also the three independent companies, 
four from Massachusetts, eleven from New York State, 
four from New Jersey, two from Rhode Island, three from 
Connecticut, one from Michigan, and two from Ohio. 
These regiments numbered about 28,000 men. Besides 
these, there were about 4,000 District of Columbia militia, 
organized under Colonel Stone, and about 4,000 regular 
United States troops. All these were concentrated, thus 
early, for the defence of the capital, and to form a pivot 
for future movements. 

159 



l6o SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Though these volunteer regiments had had but little 
opportunity for drill, the impatience of the North soon 
made it necessary for them to make a forward movement 
of some kind ; and, as Alexandria was the most approxi- 
mate point, and as a considerable force of the Confederates 
were known to be concentrated there, it was resolved to 
make an attack upon, and, if possible, capture that city. 
Accordingly, at midnight on the 23d of May, 1 861, a 
small force was pushed across the Long Bridge to the 
Virginia side, to clear and hold the head of the bridge ; 
and at two o'clock on the following morning a consider- 
able force left Washington on foot, while a regiment of 
Zouaves, under command of Colonel Ellsworth, left on 
two steamers — all for Alexandria. The movement was 
so concerted that the force on foot reached the outskirts 
of the city at the same time that Ellsworth's force reached 
the wharves. The Confederate force at Alexandria was 
far too small to contend with the Union force sent against 
them, and as the one entered the other retired from the 
city. But for the unfortunate death of Colonel Ellsworth, 
who was shot by James Jackson, the proprietor of the 
Marshall House, while the* former was removing a Con- 
federate flag which had been flying from the flag-staff of 
that hotel, and the killing of Jackson, which followed 
immediately after, there would have been no blood shed 
in the capture of that city. 

Not only did the Confederate troops retire on the ap- 
proach of the Union troops, but a large number of fam- 
ilies and single citizens left at the same time. Indeed, 
for several days previous to the coming of the Union 
troops, it was well known in Alexandria that they were 
coming, and many of its citizens, some of whom owned 
farms in other parts of Virginia, some plantations in other 
parts of the South, and others who had friends and rela- 
tives in other parts of the State, or in other parts of the 



HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. l6l 

South, had all quietly left for their respective farm-homes, 
plantations, or friends. Some who could not leave thus 
suddenly went as soon as they could thereafter, so that, 
before a Union line had been fully established beyond 
Alexandria, probably two-thirds of its citizens had left, 
leaving only about ten thousand out of a previous popu- 
lation of about thirty thousand. 

Immediately thereafter, however, the Union forces com- 
menced to establish camps at points beyond, yet not far 
from, Alexandria. Near the Seminary buildings, only a 
few miles from the city, a considerable number of troops 
were encamped; while, at Malvern Hills, at Edsall's farm, 
at or near Fall's Church, and at many other points, regi- 
ments, brigades, or whole divisions were located. As 
a consequence of this, notwithstanding Alexandria had 
been so largely abandoned by its own citizens, its streets 
were more thronged with citizens and soldiers combined, 
its drinking saloons were more frequented, and there was 
more of bustle and confusion generally in the city during 
the summer, fall, and winter of 1861 than there had eyer 
been in any past period of its history. 

With the hasty leaving of the leading citizens of Alex- 
andria had gone whatever it had possessed of municipal, 
county, or State government. The mayor and members 
of the city council had fled ; all the State and county 
judges had fled; the county clerk, the surrogate, and 
every other county officer had fled; nor was there a 
single justice of the peace, a single constable, or a single 
police-officer — or, at least, not one who declared himself 
as such — left in the city. There was no formal announce- 
ment of the establishing of martial law within the city 
limits, but its possession by Union troops made it vir- 
tually so from the moment they took possession. 

The battle of Bull Run occurred on the 2 1st of July, 
1 86 1, and although Alexandria had been bad enough 



l62 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

before that tiniQ, it was still worse after. For some time 
after that battle the Union army seemed utterly demoral- 
ized. The commanders of regiments, brigades, and di- 
visions seemed for the moment to have lost all control 
over their men. Officers and men, instead of remaining 
in camp to drill, flocked into Washington and into Alex- 
andria by scores, yea, by hundreds, every day. Hotels, 
drinking saloons, restaurants, houses of ill-fame were all 
doing a rushing business, and meanwhile the legitimate 
duties of the officer and the soldier were almost wholly 
neglected. General McClellan reached Washington, and 
assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, on the 
26th of July, 1 86 1, and on the 30th issued an order in 
which he said, "The general commanding the division 
has with much regret observed that large numbers of 
officers and men stationed in the vicinity of Washington 
(his command included Alexandria and beyond as well) 
are in the habit of frequenting the streets and hotels of 
the city. This practice is eminently prejudicial to good 
order and discipline, and must at once be discontinued." 
This order had a salutary effect to a certain extent, but 
it by no means cured the evil. It made officers and men 
more careful to procure leaves of absence and passes 
before leaving their camps ; for, if found in Washington 
or Alexandria without such leave or pass, they were 
liable to be called upon by the provost-marshal, or ar- 
rested by the provost-guard ; but, after the first week or 
two, in the lessening of numbers the effect of the order 
was hardly perceptible. The hotels, drinking saloons, 
restaurants, and houses of ill- fame still continued to do 
a thriving business ; while fights in saloons, brawls in the 
streets, insults to persons walking the streets, thefts, rob- 
beries, and the like misdemeanors, were of almost daily 
and nightly occurrence. 

Such was the condition of things in Alexandria, when, 



HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. 163 

in August, 1 861, General William R. Montgomery, who 
had been the Colonel of the First New Jersey regiment 
of volunteers, but had recently been promoted to a brig- 
adier-generalship, was detached from his command, then 
encamped near the Seminary buildings, and assigned to 
the command (as Military Governor) of Alexandria. He 
had for his Assistant Adjutant-General, Jacob R, Freese, 
of Trenton, N. J., who had been an active business-man 
all his life (he was then about thirty-five years of age), 
and who for the four years immediately preceding the 
war had been the editor and proprietor of the State 
Gazette, one of the leading newspapers of the State. 
General Montgomery was then about sixty years of age, 
a graduate of West Point, had been connected with the 
regular army nearly all his life — a perfect gentleman in 
his manners, mild, quiet, unobtrusive, exceedingly kind 
and gentle ; but knew comparatively nothing of business 
life, and had hardly been in a police-office or a court- 
room during his whole life. Though no officer in the 
army was truer to the Union cause than he, yet so ex- 
ceedingly kind was he in his general disposition, so 
disliked to refuse any favor asked of him, and so averse 
was he to punishment of any kind, that he soon found 
his new situation a very perplexing one. Hardly had he 
assumed command, before such of the secessionists as 
remained in Alexandria commenced to ask favors at his 
hands. In all cases, where he possibly could, it gave him 
as much or more pleasure to grant their requests than 
for them to receive the favors. This soon became known 
to extreme Unionists, who thereupon called the General 
"a rebel in disguise." When this came to the General's 
ears, it distressed him greatly. It also distressed him as 
much, or more, to learn that some Alexandrians who 
remained were practising great cruelty towards some white 
citizens, and especially towards their slaves, because they 



164 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

had dared to express Union sentiments. And still 
another source of great annoyance to him was, that great 
numbers of soldiers came into the city every day — some 
got drunk, abused citizens, created brawls in the streets, 
and then left without so much as saying " by your leave, 
sir." Other disputes and disturbances were occurring, 
almost daily, among the citizens, which, when all other 
means failed, would be referred to him for settlement, 
since, as heretofore stated, there were no courts left in the 
city to whom such disputes could be referred. To or- 
ganize a court-martial and keep it in session all the while 
would take a number of officers from their regular duties, 
and seemed utterly impracticable. To undertake to 
arbitrate and decide all cases himself, seemed not less 
impracticable, if not impossible; and as to prescribing 
punishment to others, he would almost prefer to take it 
upon himself 

Every day he talked these troublesome matters over 
with his Assistant Adjutant- General, and finally requested 
him to draw up, and submit to him, in writing, a plan for 
governing the city. This he did on the day following the 
request. The leading feature of the plan submitted was 
to organize a provost-court, over which some officer 
should preside as provost-judge, who should hear and 
adjudicate all cases of whatsoever kind brought before 
him. To arrest delinquents and enforce the orders of 
the provost-court, the plan proposed that the soldiers, 
detailed for sentinel duty in the city, should be organized 
into a provost-guard, with a provost-marshal at their 
head ; that both the marshal and guard should be subject 
to the direct orders of the provost-judge ; and that the 
provost-judge should submit his doings, every day, to the 
military governor for his approval, amendment, or rever- 
sal, since he alone was responsible to the general govern- 
ment for what was done within his command. General 



HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. l6$ 

Montgomery considered the plan carefully and decided 
to adopt it. He then asked his Adjutant to accept the 
appointment of provost-judge, and perform its duties, in 
addition to such as he had as Assistant Adjutant-General 
of the post. At first the Adjutant declined, not seeing 
how it was possible for him to perform both duties, since 
either one of them seemed quite as much as any one man 
could perform. The General urged that, as he would 
be held officially responsible for whatever the provost- 
judge might do, he must have some one in whom he had 
implicit confidence, some one whom he could see and 
converse with at every meal-time, some one who was 
familiar with the workings of courts of justice, and since 
he, the Adjutant, had drawn up the plan, there was no one 
whom he could detail that could put the plan in operation 
so well as he. The Adjutant, on the other hand, urged 
that his duties were already quite as much as he could 
perform satisfactorily to himself; that almost every day 
he had quartermaster, commissary, and hospital reports 
to examine and sign ; passes and permits to consider and 
issue, etc. ; all of which involved the writing, " By order 
of Brigadier-General Montgomery, J. R. Freese, A. A. G.," 
from one hundred to five hundred times each day, which 
usually occupied every minute of his time. It was finally 
arranged that the General should detail two additional 
clerks for the Adjutant's office, and one to write up the 
records of the court at every sitting, and thereupon the 
Adjutant consented to enter upon the additional duty of 
provost-judge of the city. The General issued the nec- 
essary order, over his own signature, and on the day fol- 
lowing the Adjutant entered upon his new duties. 

The court-house had not been used for any purpose 
since the evacuation of the city by the Confederates. Men 
were now put.towork in cleaning and fitting it up for the 
purposes of the new provost-court. A large building on 



l66 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the outskirts of the city, which had been used for the 
temporary detention of slaves, and therefore called a 
*' slave-pen," was cleaned and fitted up as a guard-house. 
The old jail was cleaned, whitewashed, and renovated 
generally. A large, empty building, in the heart of the 
city, was fitted up for the provost-marshal's office, and as 
quarters for the guards. Captain Griffiths, of Pennsylva- 
nia, the senior captain of the companies then on duty as 
sentinels, was appointed provost-marshal, and the two 
companies then on duty organized as a provost-guard. 
The duty assigned them was to arrest every drunken 
man — officer, private, or citizen — whom they observed to 
be disturbing the peace of the city, whether at hotels, 
drinking saloons, on the streets, or elsewhere ; to take 
them, so soon as arrested, to the officer in charge at the 
guard-house and report all the facts to him; if the officer 
at the guard -house deemed the complaint to be of such 
seriousness as to require a further hearing, the arrested 
party was to be locked up until the next sitting of the 
provost-court, when he was to be brought before that 
court for trial. This was to be the procedure not only in 
cases of drunkenness, but in all other cases of petty mis- 
demeanor. If, however, the offence was of a more serious 
character, the party arrested was to be taken at once 
before the provost-marshal, and all the facts immediately 
after reported to the provost-judge. If he deemed the 
charges sufficiently strong to hold the arrested party, he 
was then to be sent to the county jail and there held until 
next day, or until the court was ready to try the case, 
which usually was on the day following the arrest. It 
was arranged that a session of the provost-court should 
be held every day (Sundays excepted) at the court-house, 
commencing at ten o'clock, and continue until all the 
cases were disposed of Usually this could be done be- 



HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. 167 

tween ten and twelve o'clock ; but occasionally the ses- 
sions extended until late in the afternoon. 

After all needed arrangements had been completed, the 
Judge's horse — saddled, bridled, and with a pair of loaded 
revolvers in the holsters — might be seen every morning, 
at precisely nine and a half o'clock, standing before the 
General's headquarters. At precisely a quarter to ten, 
Judge Freese would come out of the Adjutant's office 
in full uniform, mount his horse, and, usually on a 
full gallop, ride to the court-house, about a quarter of a 
mile distant from the headquarters. On reaching the 
court-house the Judge dismounted, a soldier took charge 
of his horse, and he passed in to take his seat on the 
bench. Generally, the guards, and the prisoners from 
the guard-house, were already in waiting — every guard 
standing at attention, with loaded musket and fixed bay- 
onet. It was from this fact that it was sometimes desig- 
nated, by New York journals and others, as "Judge 
Freese's Bayonet Court." The clerk, acting as " crier," 
then announced that the " court was now open for busi- 
ness," and immediately after handed the Judge a list con- 
taining the names of all the prisoners at the bar, with the 
nature of the offence charged against each. The Judge, 
beginning with No. I, would call for the evidence of the 
sentinel making the arrest, and then for the evidence of 
others who might know anything of the case. When 
the evidence for the prosecution had closed, the accused 
was asked to say anything he could in his own defence, and 
to produce any witnesses he might have. It was plainly 
to be seen that the Judge always leaned towards mercy ; 
that he encouraged and aided the prisoner in the making 
of a defence, if any were possible ; that never, at any time, 
did he speak harshly to a prisoner at the bar ; but even 
in his sentences so tempered his words with kindness 
and good advice as to make the accused determine to do 



l68 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

better in the future. At no session of the court, nor at 
any time after, was a prisoner ever known to complain of 
his treatment by the Judge, such was his uniform kind- 
ness and courtesy towards all who were brought before 
him, whether citizens or soldiers, white or black. When 
all the evidence was in on both sides, the Judge an- 
nounced the sentence and the clerk recorded it. The 
book in which the record was kept was open to the in- 
spection and revision of the General commanding (mili- 
tary governor) every day, so that he might, if he chose, 
at once change or reverse any sentence which the Judge 
had passed upon any prisoner. The number of cases tried 
each day varied from ten to thirty. Most of them were 
of a minor character, and the punishment, consequently, 
very light. Often the one day or one night's deten- 
tion in the guard-house, which they had already received, 
was deemed sufficient ; in other more serious cases, a fine 
of from one to five dollars, or further confinement in the 
guard-house or in the jail from one to five days, was im- 
posed ; but now and then a case of far graver character 
was brought before the court, one of which we will now 
relate. 

Mr. A. was an old resident of Alexandria, and for 
many years had been engaged in business as a hardware 
merchant. He was a Virginian by birth ; a man of gen- 
eral good character, a hearty secessionist, and would have 
gone when the others left, only that his family and his 
business were in such condition that the one could not 
be removed, nor could the other be closed without very 
great discomfort and a large sacrifice. He therefore con- 
cluded to take his chances of remaining, and did remain. 

Mr. B. had been a resident of Alexandria for several 
years. Had been one of the builders, and was then super- 
intendent, of the gas-works of that city. He was a New 
Englander by birth, and an earnest Unionist from the day 



HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. 169 

the contest opened between the North and the South. 
Though a very quiet man, and never speaking upon 
poHtical or warlike matters, except when in situations 
where he must speak or show cowardice, yet when thus 
compelled to speak he never failed to express his honest 
sentiments. 

Messrs. A. and B. had been warm personal friends for 
several years, the latter purchasing all the hardware 
needed for the gas-works of the former, and being in his 
store frequently, as well for pastime as on business. Un- 
til the war commenced there had never been a word of 
difference between them, and since it commenced they 
had rarely spoken upon the subject, for each well knew 
the other's sentiments, and neither desired a rupture of 
friendly relations. On the day in which a rupture did 
occur, Mr. B. went to Mr. A.'s store to make a purchase 
of some article, when in some way the conversation be- 
tween them turned upon the war. For some cause Mr. 
A. seemed to be in a specially bad-humor that day, and 
very soon commenced to use most violent language 
toward the " Yankees " and the Union troops. Mr. B. 
replied, at first very mildly, but one word led to another, 
until erelong both became angry and talked loud. All 
of a sudden Mr. A., who was a large, powerful man, seized 
Mr. B,, who was a much smaller, weaker man, by the 
throat, and hurled him to the floor. Then, seizing a large 
butcher-knife which chanced to lay upon the counter, he 
held it threateningly over B.'s breast, and said he would 
kill him instantly unless he would promise not to report 
the conversation they had had and the difficulty following 
it to Provost-Judge Freese. Of course, such noise and 
confusion brought others into the store, and before the 
promise could be exacted others had seized and dragged 
Mr. A. from off his prostrate antagonist. Mr. B. went 
from the store direct to military headquarters and re- 
15 



I/O SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

ported all that had occurred to Judge Freese. A formal 
statement, as detailed by Mr. B., was then drawn up by 
the Judge and subscribed and sworn to by Mr. B. It 
was then afternoon, and too late to try the case that day. 
The Judge, therefore, issued an order to the Provost-Mar- 
shal to arrest Mr, A. at once, lock him up in the county 
jail, and bring him before the court next morning at ten 
o'clock — all of which was done precisely as ordered. The 
arrest of so prominent a man as A. spread throughout the 
city at once. Before sundown there was scarcely a man or 
a woman in the whole city who did not know of it, and 
General Montgomery was besieged by Mr. A.'s wife, by 
his daughters, and by several of his secession friends to 
order his release at once. The General, having learned 
the facts from his Adjutant, only replied that ** things must 
take their course ; that the trial, and that only, could de- 
velop whether Mr. A. was guilty or not, and, if he was, he 
could not and would not interfere with the Judge in the 
infliction of a proper punishment, however much he re- 
gretted the difficulty and sympathized with those who 
were afflicted by it." 

The next day the court-room was crowded in every 
part, and promptly at ten o'clock the crier announced the 
court open for business. After all the other cases had 
been disposed of, that of Mr. A. was called. The wit- 
nesses, both for the prosecution and for the defence, were 
examined carefully and patiently by the Judge and by the 
defendant. Then the defendant was invited to say what- 
ever he could in his own defence. The defendant had a 
lawyer present to suggest and prompt him, but the law- 
yer would not appear as his formal attorney, for the reason 
that some time before the Judge had announced that, as 
that was a United States court, no lawyer could appear in 
it, as attorney for another, unless he would take, if asked, 
the oath of allegiance to the United States Government, 



HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. I7I 

and the lawyer present being an avowed secessionist, he 
well knew that if he attempted to act as an attorney for 
his friend A., he would at once be tendered the oath of 
allegiance to take or refuse. He therefore contented him- 
self with whispering in his friend's ear, without presum- 
ing to appear as his attorney. The facts, as heretofore 
stated, were all proved beyond any possible doubt. In- 
deed, the defendant himself scarcely made a denial of any 
one of the statements made by Mr. B. He only pleaded, 
in extenuation, that he had no ill-will towards Mr. B., and 
that whatever was said or done was from an excess of 
passion for the moment, which he could not control; that 
he greatly regretted all that had happened, and would 
promise the court that the like should never happen 
again. He also produced several witnesses to prove his 
previous good character. 

Before pronouncing sentence, the Judge took occasion 
to say that the court had been organized for the special 
purpose of maintaining the peace of the city. That, in 
the absence of all other courts, this was the only judicial 
power to which citizens of Alexandria could look for the 
protection of their lives and their property, and in this 
respect it was as much of a protection to the avowed 
secessionist as to the Unionist; that the lives and the 
property of the one or of the other were equally under 
the protection of the court. While, he added, the court 
could not, and would not, recognize secession as a legal 
right, and while no secessionist, as such, could have any 
legal standing in that court, professionally or otherwise, 
yet the court would, at all times and under all circum- 
stances, use whatever power it possessed to protect the 
lives and property of avowed secessionists. If, then, it 
was thus ready to protect secessionists in their personal 
and property rights, certainly it should not be less willing 
to protect Unionists. Nor would it be less ready to pro- 



172 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

tect Union men so long as he remained the Judge of the 
court. In conclusion, the Judge said that, in considera- 
tion of Mr. A.'s previous good character, in the absence 
of all premeditation, and in consideration of other ex- 
tenuating circumstances surrounding the case, he would 
make the sentence of this defendant very light, but gave 
fair warning, then and there, to all the residents of Alex- 
andria, and to such as came within the jurisdiction of the 
court, though not residents of the city, that should there 
be any further assaults upon Union men, whether by 
word or by act, the court would punish the offender with 
much greater severity. He then sentenced Mr. A. to 
pay a fine of five hundred dollars, and to stand committed 
to the county jail until the fine was paid. " Of course," 
the Judge added, " this does not relieve Mr. A. from the 
payment of damages to Mr, B. for any injuries he may 
have sustained at the hands of A., and for which he may 
choose to prosecute in an action for damages." The 
court then adjourned, and Mr. A. was ordered back to 
the county jail until the fine was paid. 

Mr. A. and his friends were very indignant at the sen- 
tence; said it should never be paid; that he would rot 
in the jail first ; that they would appeal to General Mc- 
Clellan, to the President, to the Cabinet, to Congress ; 
but to all such threats the Judge only replied, when they 
came to his ears, " He shall have all the opportunities he 
wants for appeal, but until the fine is paid, or the judg- 
ment set aside by a higher authority, he must remain in 
jail." That afternoon and evening every possible effort 
was made with General Montgomery and with Judge 
Freese to have him released on bail, but without avail. 
Next day, when the court opened, a friend of Mr. A. was 
present with five hundred dollars in silver, which he paid 
down, and thereupon received an order from the Judge 
for Mr. A.'s release from jail. That money, as all other 



HOW ORDER WAS MAINTAINED. I73 

received by the court for fines, and not used for feeding 
the prisoners and other incidental court expenses, was 
deposited with the United States Treasurer, at Washing- 
ton, to await such further action as might be had in this 
or in any other case. 

In pursuance of their threats, Mr. A. and his friends at 
once went to work to have the fine refunded, and finally, 
after several months* effort, succeeded in getting General 
McClellan to issue an order on General Montgomery for 
the refunding of the money. This was done by an order 
on the United States Treasurer for the five hundred 
dollars. 

Mr. A. got his money back, but neither he nor any 
other secessionist of Alexandria ever again made an 
assault, with threat to kill, upon a Union man ; nor did 
any Union man make a like assault or threat upon a 
secessionist. And, better still, it had the effect to con- 
vince every secessionist that Judge Freese's court was 
no respecter of persons ; that while it punished such of 
the poor as violated the law, it was no less ready to 
punish the rich ; and that a Union man in Alexandria 
would be protected by the court with as much vigilance 
as one could possibly be in New York or Philadelphia. 
The refunding of the fine, however, proved that General 
McClellan and his advisers, while pretending great love 
for the Union, were largely in sympathy with the seces- 
sionists, and would, so far as they could, undo anything 
the Provost-Court might do in punishing rebels and pro- 
tecting loyal men. General Montgomery and Judge 
Freese, being convinced that such would thenceforth be 
the policy of General McClellan and his advisers, tried 
thereafter to so shape the proceedings of the court that 
General McClellan should know as little about it, and 
have as little to do with it, as possible — believing (as 
afterwards proved true) that he would not only thwart it£ 
15* 



174 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

proceedings, but really abolish the court altogether, when- 
ever he could see that he could do so without calling 
down upon himself and political associates condemnation 
from the administration. 

Thus has been stated the how and why of the organ- 
ization of the Provost-Court at Alexandria; some of the 
details of its workings, so far as appertained to its mu- 
nicipal or police duties ; its happy effect upon the com- 
parative quiet of the city ; and its restraining power on 
the belligerent disposition of some of its citizens. What 
other powers the court was called upon to exercise, 
and how it exercised them, will be reserved for future 
chapters. 




^ Sf 9=11111111 



176 



CHAPTER XII. 

JUDGE FR ERSE'S <* BAYONET COURT." 
OTHER POWERS, AND HOW EXERCISED. 

HARDLY had the Provost-Court at Alexandria been 
organized before reporters for Northern journals 
began to call upon the General and upon the Judge for 
details of its doings, and soon thereafter reports, to a 
slight extent, of its operations began to appear in some 
journals under the caption of Judge Freese's " Bayonet 
Court" — the same as placed at the head of this chapter. 
One illustrated paper of New York city had a full-page 
cut, representing the Judge upon the bench in military 
uniform, with his clerk sitting at his right, and his sword 
laying upon the desk at his left, with guards standing at 
attention, each with musket and fixed bayonet; with a 
score or more of prisoners in the dock, all with woe- 
begone faces ; with the Provost-Marshal, in full uniform, 
standing in front of the Judge, awaiting his orders ; with 
lookers-on all about; and with all the other paraphernalia 
of a crowded city court-room. 

It was not for show, by any means, that the Judge rode 
to the court in uniform, with loaded revolvers in his 
holsters ; nor was it for show that he sat upon the bench 
in uniform, and had guards about him with loaded mus- 
kets and fixed bayonets. Almost from the day that the court 
commenced its sittings, the secessionists who remained 
in Alexandria began to sneer at the court, and some even 
went so far as to threaten the Judge with assassination. 

M 177 



178 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

These facts were communicated to the Judge by friends, 
and through secret detectives, whom the Provost- Marshal 
had employed to watch every movement in the city. It 
was, therefore, Hterally true that the Judge ** carried his 
life in his hand " every moment, and was liable to assault 
and attempted assassination every time he rode to the 
court-room, every time he took his seat upon the bench, 
every time he walked the streets. But a still greater 
reason for this display of power, and of constant readi- 
ness to meet every emergency, was, that the inhabitants 
of the city might be impressed with the power of the 
court, and the source from which it derived that power — 
namely, the military. Without such impression of power 
among the citizens, the orders of the court would not 
have been respected and obeyed, and twice, if not four 
times, the number of guards would have been needed to 
enforce its orders and maintain quiet in the city. To 
relate a few of the cases which came before the court, 
under this particular head, will better illustrate the facts 
above stated than any amount of theorizing. 

One day, the General informed the Judge that, as he 
was passing along King Street, two females, dressed as 
ladies, overtook and passed him, and, as they passed, they 
gathered up their skirts and held them from him, and 
made other signs of derision and contempt, as though 
he, the General, was the vilest of all vile creatures. After 
they had passed, he inquired of a citizen and learned that 
they were the wives of two noted secessionists, who still 
remained in the city. 

About the same time several officers, and quite a num- 
ber of the guards, told the Judge that, while the men of 
the city treated them with entire respect, the women and 
the children of secession citizens insulted them almost 
daily — the women by various acts of contempt, and the 
children by calling them vile names and throwing stones 



JUDGE FREESE's "BAYONET COURT." I79 

at them. They had borne, they said, these things a long 
time without seeming to notice them, and without com- 
plaint; but the longer and more they forbore, the oftener 
and viler became the insults, and they could stand it no 
longer without making complaint to the court. 

The Judge thereupon announced in open court, that 
from thenceforth any woman, or any child, who offered an 
insult, or threw a stone or other missile at any officer or 
soldier upon the public streets, should be promptly ar- 
rested and inquired of as to who was their husband, 
father, brother, or other near male relative. That, if the 
guard making the arrest was not entirely satisfied as to 
the truthfulness of the answers made, the woman or child 
should be at once brought to the office of the Provost- 
Marshal or of the Judge, for such further questioning and 
disposition as either might deem proper in the case. That, 
upon ascertaining, without doubt, the name and where- 
abouts of the husband, father, or brother, the woman or 
child should be dismissed, and the husband, father, or 
brother of the one offending should be immediately ar- 
rested, locked up in jail until next day, and then brought 
before the court for trial and sentence. Or, if the woman 
arrested proved to be a courtesan, or, if the child had no 
father or adult brother who could answer for him or her, 
then the woman herself, or the child, should be locked 
up in jail until the next day, and then brought before the 
court for trial and sentence. 

Within twenty-four hours after thjs order was promul- 
gated from the bench, it was known to every man, woman, 
and half-grown child of the city. Of course, there were 
deep mutterings, some cursing, and not a few threats, 
especially against Judge Freese, but the effect was won- 
derful and immediate. So wholesome a dread did it 
produce on the minds of those who had been offering 
such insults, daily, and almost every hour of the day, that 



l80 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

there was only one instance in which the order had to be 
executed. That was the case of a child, who called vile 
names and threw stones at one of the guards, while at 
his post. The child was promptly arrested, the name of 
his father ascertained, the child dismissed, and the father 
at once arrested and locked up until next day. When 
brought before the court, the father proved one of the 
most pronounced secessionists of the city, and, instead of 
apologizing for the rude acts of his son, rather approved 
of what he had done. The Judge tried to reason with 
him as to the impropriety of such conduct towards any 
one, and especially towards a guard, whose duty and busi- 
ness it was to protect the lives and property of seces- 
sionists no less than of Unionists. But the longer the 
Judge reasoned, the more obstinate the defendant became, 
until finally the Judge said he would have to make a 
slight example in his case, and thereupon sentenced him 
to ten days in the county jail — promising that the next 
person arrested for a like offence should receive a sentence 
doubly, if not quadruply, as great. The news of the 
arrest and sentence was speedily known in every house 
of the city, and from thenceforth no other arrest was 
necessary for a like offence. The recognized power of 
the court had done the work, with but one arrest and 
punishment as an example. But for this recognized power, 
at least a hundred arrests would have been needed before 
the evil could have been abated. 

Another instance of the recognition of the power of 
the court was as follows : One of the Episcopal ministers 
of the city was known to be in the habit of omitting the 
prayer for the President of the United States, found in 
the morning service of the Episcopal prayer-book. The 
fact was told to the Provost-Judge, and he was asked by 
some over-zealous Unionists to send a note to the minister, 
requiring him to use the prayer, or be subject to arrest in 



JUDGE FREESE's "BAYONET COURT." l8l 

case he refused. The Judge declined to do any such thing 
— telling his informants, that whether the minister used 
that prayer or not was purely a matter of conscience, and 
that it was no part of his business, or the business of his 
court, to interfere in matters of conscience ; that he fully 
agreed with Roger Williams in the opinion, that the civil 
or military authorities of a town, city, or state, " have no 
more right to command over the souls and consciences of 
their subjects than the master of a ship has over those of 
his passengers or the sailors under him, although he may 
justly see to the labor of the one, and the civil behavior 
of all in the ship ; " that so long as the Episcopal minis- 
ter, and those who attended his church, deported them- 
selves as quiet citizens, attending to their own affairs and 
not interfering with the affairs of others, no matter what 
might be their sentiments on religious or political affairs, 
they were entitled to protection in their persons and 
property, and should have it. 

Those who reported the minister and desired his arrest 
were not at all pleased with Judge Freese's reply, atid 
tried hard to get up some feeling against him among the 
Union men of the city ; but utterly failed in the attempt. 
The Judge's Union sentiments were too well known, and 
had been too often tested, to allow any one who knew 
him to doubt him for a moment. Failing to make any 
impression against the Judge among the Union men of 
the city, these over-zealous busybodies next tried their 
hands among the officers of troops which lay about the 
city. It chanced, just at that time, that a regiment of 
Illinois cavalry was encamped on the outskirts of the 
city, whose officers were known to be among the most 
violent abolitionists of the country; men who believed, 
or pretended to believe, that no man who lived in a slave 
State had any rights which a Union man was bound to 
respect — not even the right of conscience. To these 
i6 



l82 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

officers these busybodies told the story about the Epis- 
copal minister omitting the prayer for the President in 
the morning service of the prayer-book ; and also of 
their having told the whole thing to Judge Freese, and 
of his refusing to issue an order to the minister to use 
the prayer or be subject to arrest. 

One of their listeners, the Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
,regiment, became so interested in their story as to vol- 
unteer at once to bring the recusant minister to speedy 
justice ; nor did he care ** a snap of his finger for Judge 
Freese, or for any other judge." Several other officers 
of the regiment volunteered to join him, and the plan 
agreed upon was that, on the following Sabbath, they 
would all attend the Episcopal service, and when the 
Rev. Doctor came to the part where the prayer for the 
President occurs, in the " morning service," if he failed 
to read it, the Lieutenant-Colonel would arise in his seat 
and demand that it be read, and if the minister refused, 
then to arrest him, and take him to the general head- 
quarters. According to appointment, the Lieutenant- 
Colonel and his friends were at the church on the follow- 
ing Sabbath morning. The congregation was not large, 
but those present seemed to be unusually devout. The 
sexton had given the Lieutenant-Colonel and his friends 
seats in about the centre of the church. The service was 
opened in the usual form. The '* general confession " had 
been repeated, all kneeling ; the " declaration of absolu- 
tion " had been pronounced ; the Lord's prayer said in a 
clear but subdued voice; the ''Venite Exidteinus Domino'' 
had been sung by the choir; the portion of the Psalms 
appointed for the day read ; the " Te Dcinn Lmidavms " 
sung; the lesson from the New Testament, according to 
the calendar, read; the Apostles' Creed repeated; and 
the prayers were being read, when, all of a sudden, a 
stentorian voice was heard, saying, " I demand, sir, that 



JUDGE FREESE's "bAYONET COURT."' I83' 

you read the prayer for the President of the United 
States." Had a cannon-ball burst through the walls of 
the church and fallen upon the floor just at that instant, 
greater surprise would not have been created. For a 
moment the minister stopped in his prayers. Part of 
the congregation arose from their knees to their feet and 
looked wildly around. Some of the more nervous of 
the ladies burst into tears. Confusion worse confounded 
seemed to pervade the whole congregation. So soon as 
the minister recovered self-possession, he commenced to 
read the prayer " for the clergy and people," when again 
a voice, louder than before, sounded throughout the church, 
saying, " I demand, sir, that you read the prayer for the 
President of the United States." Again the minister 
stopped, and again confusion prevailed for some moments. 
When quiet again prevailed, the minister, without having 
made any answer whatever to the two former requests, 
commenced to read the prayer for "all conditions of 
men," when again the demand to read the prayer for the 
President was repeated in a still louder and more threat- 
ening tone. The minister then arose from his knees, and, 
looking towards the Lieutenant-Colonel, said, " My con- 
science will not allow me, at this time, to read that prayer, 
and the congregation who statedly worship in this church 
have requested that I should not read it while the war 
between the North and the South continues." 

" Then, sir, you shall read no others while the war con- 
tinues, and I now arrest you on the charge of treason," 
said the Lieutenant-Colonel. 

This, of course, still further increased the astonishment 
and confusion of the congregation. For a few moments 
every one seemed utterly dumbfounded. Meanwhile the 
Lieutenant-Colonel and his party left their seats, advanced 
near the altar, and told the minister he must accompany 
them to the general headquarters. The minister asked 



l84 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

whether he might not first go to the vestry-room to lay 
aside his surplice and gown. The Lieutenant-Colonel an- 
swered, '• No ; come as you are." He then came out 
from the chancel, joined his arresters, and, in full canon- 
icals, without hat or cap, marched with them through the 
streets, several squares, to the general headquarters. 

All this had been done without any knowledge what- 
ever on the part of General Montgomery or Judge Freese, 
nor could any two have been more astonished than they 
were on seeing the minister and hearing the story of his 
arrest. The General was annoyed beyond measure, and, 
for a time, hardly knew what to say or to do. The Judge 
was decidedly more self-possessed, but, of course, said 
nothing. The General, turning to the Judge, asked him 
if he had heard anything of the case before. The Judge 
then told the General all that he had known, and all that 
he had said about it, as has been heretofore detailed. As 
he, the Judge, had done nothing, and had refused to do any- 
thing, concerning it, of course he had made no report of 
it to the General, since there was nothing to report. The 
General, turning to the Lieutenant-Colonel and his party, 
said that he entirely agreed in sentiment with his Assist- 
ant Adjutant-General ; that there was no reason, not the 
slightest, for the arrest of this minister ; that every officer 
engaged in the arrest had made himself liable to be put 
in arrest, and tried by court-martial, for doing that which 
he had no right to do as a military man ; and that the 
minister, upon complaint to the Provost-Judge, might have 
every one of them arrested and tried by the Provost-Court 
for assault and for a disturbance of public services. In 
conclusion, the General discharged the minister from ar- 
rest and told him that he might go to his own home, 
when, turning to the cavalry officers, he said, " The sooner 
you can get back to your own quarters, and the closer you 
remain there hereafter, the better will it be for you." 



JUDGE FREESE's "bAYONET COURT." 18$ 

As might have been expected, all this created a great 
amount of excitement on the streets and about the head- 
quarters. The minister in his white robes, in charge of 
several officers in full uniform, and with the entire con- 
gregation following after, was such a sight as had never 
been seen in Alexandria before. Everybody — men, 
women, and children — who saw it, followed after, until, 
when the headquarters were reached, there were several 
hundred persons present. When the General's decision 
in the case became known to the crowd, there was a 
general approval, as much among Unionists as among 
secessionists ; but to this there were some exceptions. 
The officers and their informers, who had been balked in 
their mad purposes, felt chagrined and angry, and left the 
headquarters with, scowling faces, as though still bent on 
mischief. The General and the Judge went to their pri- 
vate quarters, in a building across the street, nearly oppo- 
site to the general headquarters. They supposed the 
trouble ended, and that they should hear nothing more 
of it. 

In about an hour thereafter, when the General and the 
Judge had just risen from their mess-table, an orderly 
came rushing into their quarters, to say that a large 
crowd of cavalry officers, soldiers, and citizens were 
gathered about the Episcopal church, on E Street (the 
one in which the minister had been arrested), and that 
they were threatening to burn it. The General at once 
buckled on his sword, and told his Adjutant to do the 
same. Both put their revolvers in their belts. The Judge 
then told the orderly to hasten to the Provost-Marshal's 
office, and tell him to come himself, and bring as many 
officers and men with him as possible to the Episcopal 
church on E Street, and there await further orders from 
the General or himself The General and the Judge then 
went to the church in all possible haste, and found, as 
i6* 



l86 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

had been told them, several hundred soldiers and citizens 
gathered about it. In a little while after, the Provost- 
Marshal, with a considerable number of his guard, ap- 
peared on the ground. "Burn it! burn it! burn it!" 
with intermingling oaths, could be heard every now and 
then from the . mouths of half-crazed cavalry soldiers. 
The General and the Judge worked their way through 
the crowd, and took their stations directly in front of the 
church. The Provost-Marshal and his guard also worked 
their way through the crowd to the same place. The 
General then told the Judge to command the peace, in as 
loud a voice as he could. The Judge did so, and then 
added, " If any one attempts to set fire to this church, he 
will be shot down at once — and all persons, whether 
soldiers or citizens, who are found within five hundred 
yards of this church building after thirty minutes shall 
have expired, will be arrested by the provost-guard, put 
in jail until to-morrow, and then brought before the 
Provost-Court for disturbing the peace and violating the 
sanctity of the Sabbath." Scarcely had the Judge fin- 
ished his proclamation, before the crowd commenced to 
move off, and before the thirty minutes had expired not 
a soldier or citizen could be seen on the street, save the 
General and his party. Guards were then stationed at 
every approach to the church, with orders that they should 
be regularly relieved and the stations maintained until 
otherwise ordered. 

There was no other attempt to set fire to that church, 
nor to any other in Alexandria, after that, so long as 
"Judge Freese's bayonet court" continued to have an 
existence — nor could there have been a more signal in- 
stance to exemplify the acknowledged power of the court 
than the one just related. The cavalry regiment spoken 
of numbered over one thousand officers and men, nearly 
every one of whom held sentiments much the same, if 



JUDGE FREESE's ^'BAYONET COURT." iS/ 

not precisely the same, as the Lieutenant-Colonel. Within 
a circle of a few miles were dozens of other regiments, 
nearly all of whom held similar sentiments. Had that 
one church been burned on that day, probably every other 
church and two-thirds of all the buildings in the city 
would have been burned during the following thirty 
days. To prevent that church from being burned, there 
were present not more than fifty officers and men, as 
against at least one thousand of an opposite sentiment. 
In physical power the one was as nothing to the other; 
but, after the Judge had finished his announcement, there 
was not one of the thousand who stopped for a moment 
to question the power of which the Judge was the repre- 
sentative. Had a like power existed, and had a like 
power been exercised in other cities of the South occu- 
pied by Union troops, how many millions upon millions 
of dollars' worth of property might have been saved from 
the flames ! 

We will give only one other instance under this head, 
though, if time and space permitted, it would be easy to 
give scores. 

Mr. D. lived upon one of the most fashionable streets 
of Alexandria, and his family had long been regarded 
as among the F. F. V.'s of the State. He owned lands in 
other parts of Virginia on which he had a large number 
of slaves, and always kept a few at his Alexandria resi- 
dence to wait upon his family. For some cause Mr. D. 
did not leave Alexandria when other secessionists left, 
though he took the precaution to send all his slaves away 
except two, both females — mother and daughter — the one 
about forty, the other about twenty years of age. 

Mr. H. lived next door to Mr. D., and though a North- 
ern man by birth, had long been a resident and merchant 
of Alexandria. He had always been conscientiously op- 
posed to owning slaves, though he had hired them of 



l88 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

others as family servants ever since his residence in the 
city. The families of Messrs. D. and H. had long been 
on the most friendly terms, and continued so, notwith- 
standing the war, up to the very day on which the inci- 
dent occurred which we are now about to relate. 

For some weeks previous to this day, Mrs. H. had 
occasionally heard terrible, unearthly screams next door, 
and had wondered again and again what on earth it could 
mean. She had mentioned the fact to her husband, and 
he had suggested that it was probably the cry of servants 
being punished; but being upon the most friendly terms, 
as before stated, with their neighbors, they could not, and 
did not, say a word about it to others. Thus matters 
went on until the day in question. Again Mrs. H. 
heard the same fearful, heart-rending cries, and they con- 
tinued on and on until her very heart grew sick and faint. 
Just then she heard some one calling her name loudly 
from the back yard of the next building, and, stepping 
to the window, saw the elder of Mrs. D.'s two servants 
wringing her hands and crying out: 

" Oh, come, Mrs. H., come quickly ! come quickly ! 
They are killing my child ! they are killing my child ! " 

Tears were pouring in a stream from the poor mother's 
eyes, and it seemed as though her very heart would break 
from anguish. Mrs. H. could stand it no longer, and 
stepping out on her own back porch, which adjoined that 
of Mrs. D.'s, called out for Mrs. D., and when she ap- 
peared, asked her what was the cause of such awful 
screaming. 

** Oh, nothing, nothing," answered Mrs. D. " It 's only 
Jane, whom Mr. D. is punishing for looking out of the 
windows at the soldiers as they pass. I have told her 
again and again that she should not do it, and yet she 
will persist in it." 

" But," said Mrs. H., " was that all ? Surely a young 



JUDGE FREESE's "bAYONET COURT." 189 

girl like her could hardly do otherwise than look out of 
the windows when she heard music and saw soldiers 
passing? Did she do nothing else, Mrs. D.?" 

*• No, nothing else," answered Mrs. D. ; "but Mr. D. 
says if she and her mother are allowed to look out of the 
windows at the soldiers, they will soon be wanting to run 
away, and therefore we must not allow them to look 
out." 

"They don't neglect their work, do they, Mrs. D.?" 
asked Mrs. H. 

" Oh, no," answered Mrs. D. " They are both most 
excellent servants, and never neglect their work ; but hav- 
ing these Yankee soldiers in the city will, we fear, make 
them want to run away, and it is only to prevent them 
from getting any such foolish notion in their heads that 
we have forbid them to look out at the windows." 

" Have you had to punish them often for disobeying 
the order ? " asked Mrs. H. 

"Oh, no, not often," answered Mrs. D. " This is only 
i\iQ fifth time, I think, that Mr. D. has had to whip Jane 
since the Yankee soldiers came into the city, and her 
mother has only needed three punishments for the same 
offence. Take them all in all, there are, I think, few 
better servants in Alexandria than Jane and Mary." 

This ended the conversation between the two ladies at 
that time, and Mrs. H. returned to her own parlors a 
sadder, if not a wiser, woman. Within a half hour Mrs. 
H. heard still louder and more piercing cries, and the 
voice this time was plainly that of Jane's mother. Step- 
ping to and opening one of her back parlor-windows, she 
could distinctly hear the conversation between Mr. D. 
and Mary, which seemed to come from the garret of the 
house, the back dormer-windows of which chanced to be 
open. 

" Oh, don't kill me, Mr. D., don't kill me 1 I only 



190 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

called Mrs. H. because I thought you was killing my 
child — she screamed so terribly ! Oh, please don't whip 
me any more this time, please ! My back is still sore 
from the last whipping you gave me, and every stroke 
you now give me seems to cut into the flesh like a knife. 
Oh, please don't whip me any more ! please don't ! please ! 
please!" 

These words from Mary's lips Mrs. H. distinguished as 
plainly as though they had been spoken at her side, for 
both Jane and her mother spoke most excellent English, 
having always been brought up as house servants, and 
never having imbibed the habit of using the negro dia- 
lect. Indeed, in their habits and manners they were quite 
as ladylike as their mistress, nor could it hardly be other- 
wise, since both from childhood had been made to wait 
upon ladies of education and refinement, and could 
scarcely have failed to imbibe their language and man- 
ners. Pathetic as Mary's pleadings were, however, they 
failed to reach Mr. D.'s heart, for in a moment after Mrs. 
H. heard the lash again applied, and this time Mary 
screamed still louder than before. Again and again she 
could hear the lash descend upon poor Mary's back, and 
again and again came from her lips the most horrid 
screechings and the most piteous moans. Finally, Mrs. 
H. could listen no longer, but, returning to her sitting- 
room, threw herself upon a lounge and wept as if her 
very heart would break. Then and there she made a 
most solemn vow to God that she would give herself no 
rest until she had rescued Jane and her mother from their 
heartless, cruel master, nor would she ever try again to 
live on terms of friendship, much less of intimacy, with 
Mr. and Mrs. D. 

When Mr. H. came home to tea, he observed that his 
wife had been weeping, and inquired the cause. She 
then told him all that she had seen and heard during the 



JUDGE FREESE S "BAYONET COURT. igi 

afternoon, and begged of him, for her sake, for Mary 
and Jane's sake, for God's sake, to go, immediately after 
tea, to Judge Freese's quarters and tell him all that had 
occurred. She was sure, she said, from what she had 
heard of his court, that he would not permit such heart- 
less barbarities to continue in Alexandria. The husband 
was deeply impressed with his wife's story, and still more 
so by the pathetic appeal which she had made to him in 
behalf of the two servants, and promised to do as she 
requested, notwithstanding his very great reluctance to 
break friendship with Mr. and Mrs. D. 

Accordingly, after tea, instead of going back to his 
store he went direct to Judge Freese's quarters and told 
him the whole story, just as his wife had told it to him. 
The Judge listened attentively, and, when Mr. H. had fin- 
ished, said, in a very quiet but in a very determined way, 
that the case should have his careful and prompt atten- 
tion. The Judge then told Mr. H. to please bring his wife 
around to headquarters next morning, that she might 
make a formal affidavit to what she had seen and heard, 
after receiving which he would direct the Provost-Mar- 
shal to arrest Mr. H., and bring him and the two servants 
before the court at its next sitting. Next morning early 
Mr. and Mrs. H. went to the general headquarters. The 
Judge wrote down, as Mrs. H. detailed it, the story as 
heretofore told, when Mrs. H. added her signature and 
made affidavit as to its truthfulness. The Judge then 
sent for the Provost-Marshal, and ordered him to arrest 
Mr. D. and bring him and the two servants, Mary and 
Jane, before the court at ten o'clock. 

The arrest of so prominent a citizen as Mr. D. spread 
through the city like wildfire, and, when the court as- 
sembled, the court-room was crowded in every part. 
After all the other prisoners present had been discharged 
or sentenced, the case of Mr. H. was called. He arose, 



192 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

when his name was called, and said he was there in obe- 
dience to the orders of the court, but for what cause he 
knew not, except — if he had understood the marshal 
aright — for punishing his own slaves, which, according 
to the laws of Virginia, he certainly had the right to do. 
The Judge only replied that he (Mr. D.) would probably 
understand his rights better after the case had been tried, 
and then directed that the trial proceed. Mr. D. asked 
if he could be represented by an attorney. 

" Certainly," replied the Judge, " if the attorney will 
first take the oath of allegiance to the United States 
Government." 

This the attorney present declined to do, and Mr. D. 
was obliged to act as his own attorney. The first witness 
called was Mary, the slave-mother. She testified, in re- 
sponse to questions by the court, that she had been born 
the slave of Mrs. D.'s father, and had lived in his family 
until Mrs. D. was married, when she had been given to 
Mrs. D. as her maid or body-servant ; that her daughter 
Jane, then about five years of age, had been given to 
Mrs. D. at the same time; that she, Mary, had never 
been married, but when less than twenty years of age 
had repeatedly been ordered to the bedchamber of Mrs. 
D.'s father ; that Jane was none other than the daughter 
of Mrs. D.'s own father, and consequently half-sister to 
Mrs. D. herself; that she had frequently asked her former 
master and her present mistress for the privilege to learn 
to read and write, and, when she had learned herself, that 
she might teach her daughter Jane, but they had always 
refused, and given as a reason that the laws of Virginia 
made it a criminal offence to teach a slave to read or 
write ; that both she and her daughter had been gener- 
ally well treated by Mr. and Mrs. D. until the Union 
troops came to Alexandria ; that since that time both 
seemed to have entirely changed in their disposition 



JUDGE FREESE S 'BAYONET COURT. I93 

towards her and her daughter; that nothing they could 
do seemed to please them ; that both she and her daughter 
had been forbidaen to go upon the street at any time or 
upon any occasion, and that finally they had been for- 
bidden to look out of the windows ; that they had tried 
to obey even this order, but, on hearing music and the 
tramp of passing soldiers, they had sometimes been drawn 
to the windows unthinkingly ; for this one offence and 
for no other — for Mrs. D. always reported them to her 
husband, and seemed to take pleasure in doing so when- 
ever she chanced to catch them at a window — Mr. D. had 
whipped both her and her daughter several times most 
terribly ; that he always took them to the garret, tied a 
cord around each wrist, threw the cofd over a beam and 
drew them up until their toes just touched the floor, 
stripped them to the waist, and then with a rawhide gave 
them as many lashes as he thought they could stand 
without fainting ; that her own back, and her daughter's 
as well, were so raw and sore that they could hardly wear 
their dresses ; that Mrs. D. always encouraged these 
whippings, and that neither she nor her husband ever 
manifested the least sympathy with their subsequent suf- 
ferings ; that neither she nor her daughter had ever made 
an attempt to escape from bondage, nor had either of them 
ever threatened their master or mistress so to do, not- 
withstanding all they had suffered. She wept frequently 
while giving in her testimony, and at times almost the 
entire audience seemed melted to tears. The Judge was 
observed to wipe his eyes frequently, and several times 
his voice was so choked with emotion that he had to 
hesitate some moments before he could put the next 
question. The whole of Mary's evidence had to be drawn 
from her lips, item by item. She seemed all the while 
afraid to answer questions, and said nothing of her own 
accord. 

17 N 



194 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Jane was next called. Her evidence entirely accorded 
with her mother's, so far as her knowledge extended. 
Mrs. D., she said, had never found ar^ fault about her 
work — only about her looking out of the windows, and 
this she had not meant to do, but did it every time with- 
out thinking. When she heard the music of a band, or 
the tramp of soldiers, some irresistible force always drew 
her to the nearest window to look out. She could not 
help it, though her life depended upon it. Both she and 
her mother were passionately fond of music, and when 
their mistress played on the piano in the parlor, they 
generally managed to leave their work long enough to 
stand and listen, by a door ajar, until the music ended. 
She did not understand why she and her mother should 
be so infatuated^crazy as she called it — about music. 
She only knew that it was so, and that neither of them 
could help it. 

Mrs. H. was the next witness. She detailed, carefully 
and succinctly, what she had heard and seen the afternoon 
before. Told of her long and agreeable acquaintance 
with Mr. and Mrs. D., and how much she regretted the 
rupture of those friendly relations. Said she had fre- 
quently heard Mrs. D. speak in the highest terms of her 
two servants, Mary and Jane ; that several times before 
that afternoon she had heard strange, unusual noises next 
door, but never until then had she heard them plain 
enough to know what they meant. On leaving the wit- 
ness-stand and resuming her seat, she burst into a flood 
of tears, and it was several minutes before she could re- 
gain her self-possession. 

The Judge then asked Mr. D. to call any witnesses 
he had present, or to present himself or his wife as a 
witness, if he thought proper. 

Mr. D. replied that he had no witnesses in the case, 
neither did he propose to offer himself nor his wife as a 



JUDGE FREESE's "bAYONET COURT. I95 

witness ; that he substantially admitted all that had been 
said by the witnesses for the prosecution, except as to the 
severity of the punishment inflicted. In that, he thought, 
the witnesses had all exaggerated. In the excitement at- 
tendant upon the punishment of a servant, however, one 
might strike harder blows, and more of them, than he 
intended or knew of at the moment ; but he certainly 
never had intended to punish either Mary or Jane to the 
extent they had described. His defence, he said, was that 
he had done nothing more than the laws of Virginia au- 
thorized. That, within maiming and death, the law gave 
to a master the authority to punish a slave to any extent 
he pleased. That ever since Federal troops had been 
in the city he had suspected Mary and Jane to.be plan- 
ning means of escape, and that it was to make them 
realize his right to them as their owner and master, and 
to keep them in wholesome dread of his authority, that hei 
had forbidden them to go upon the streets, to look out at 
the windows, and had occasionally punished them in, as 
he thought, a very mild way. Besides, he thought a 
military court had no right whatever to interfere with the 
relations between master and slave, and hoped the court 
would think proper to dismiss the case. He spoke in a 
very pompous manner, and took his seat as one who had 
entirely demolished his adversaries. 

For a few moments there was an almost death-like si- 
lence in the court-room. No one spoke. You could 
almost have heard a pin drop on the floor. The Judge 
then ordered Mr. D. to stand up to receive the sentence 
of the court. Mr. D. stood up. The Judge then pro- 
ceeded to say, "Sir: You are charged with assault and 
battery upon these two defenceless females, Mary and 
Jane. The evidence is clear that you committed such 
assault, not once only but several times. Indeed, you 
yourself admit it Your defence is that they are your 



196 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

slaves, and that, according to the slave code of Virginia, 
you had the right to punish them to any extent you 
pleased within that of maiming or the taking of life. I 
am not familiar with the slave code of Virginia, and can- 
not say of a certainty that you represent it wrongfully, 
but I can say that if such authority exists upon any statute- 
book of any State, it is a disgrace to civilization, and the 
sooner it be expunged the better. But, sir, it matters not 
to this court what the laws of Virginia may be upon this 
or upon any other subject. This is a United States mili- 
tary court — a court of necessity, and * necessity knows 
no law * is an old maxim — a court established because all 
other means of justice had fled from this city — a court 
governed by the principles of equity, rather than of law — 
a court established to protect the lives, the natural rights, 
and the property of every inhabitant of Alexandria, without 
regard to their political opinions, their religious predilec- 
tions, their sex, their condition in life, or their color — a 
court which does not, and cannot, recognize slavery in 
any shape or form — a court which now and ever will 
protect the lives, the personal rights, and the property 
of those called slaves as readily as of those called masters. 
While this court possesses no power to dissolve the rela- 
tion which the laws of a State have made possible between 
master and slave — that power belonging alone to the 
President of the United States in his capacity as com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy — yet it does possess 
the power, and it is its imperative duty, to protect the 
weak against the strong, the slave against undue severity 
from his or her master or mistress, and particularly from 
inflicting punishment without adequate cause. The evi- 
dence in this case, sir, shows that you had no cause, no 
reasonable cause, for inflicting any punishment whatever 
on either of these females ; that they were both uniformly 
good servants, that your wife invariably spoke of them as 



JUDGE FREESE's "BAYONET COURT." I97 

such until the Union troops came into this city, and that 
then, and not till then, you conceived the idea that they 
would escape from your service if they could, and to 
counteract such a thought in their minds you gave them 
commands contrary to all the laws of nature ; and because 
they did not, for the reason that they could not, obey 
these unnatural commands, you inflicted upon them both 
a degree of punishment such as a man would be indicta- 
ble for if inflicted upon a horse. This you try to excuse 
by saying that, while in a passion, you may have struck 
them harder and oftener than you intended; the answer 
to which is that a man subject to such violent passions, 
and devoid of mercy, as you, sir, appear to be, is utterly 
unfit to have in his power those who ar^ unable to defend 
themselves against brute violence. Those whom you 
abuse, therefore, must be taken from your control ; must 
be placed in the hands of those who will treat them kindly, 
treat them as human beings ; and though this temporary 
taking away may not destroy your legal right to their 
services at some future time, it will, at least, protect them 
from your violence for the present, and it may be that, before 
this sentence shall have expired, a merciful Providence 
may induce the President to issue a proclamation of uni- 
versal freedom to all the slaves of this land. Meanwhile, 
this court will use all the power it possesses to protect 
them from undue violence from those who call themselves 
their owners ; and the court desires to give fair warning 
now, so that all may be without excuse hereafter, that 
from henceforth this court will regard an assault made 
upon a so-called slave in precisely the same light as if 
made upon a free white person. For every stroke laid 
upon a slave hereafter, without justifiable cause, the master 
will receive a like number, or other punishment equal 
thereto, by the sentence of this court ; and the only reason 
why you, sir, are excused from corporal punishment now, 
17* 



198 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

is, that you acted ignorantly — acted, as you supposed, 
under the laws of Virginia, and without knowing the law 
or orders of this court upon this subject. Hereafter no 
one within the jurisdiction of this court can have any 
such excuse. 

** The sentence of the court is, that you, Mr. D., im- 
mediately after the adjournment of this court, go with 
the Provost- Marshal to his office, and there, over your own 
hand and seal, with the Provost-Marshal as a witness, 
execute a permit to Mary and to Jane, each, to leave your 
employ at once, and take with them whatever of clothing 
or other articles heretofore recognized as theirs — to en- 
gage their services as domestics to whomsoever else they 
please, to receive in their own right and to use as they 
please, whatever wages may be agreed upon between 
them and their future employers — to go and come when 
and wheresoever they please, and in no respect whatsoever 
to be subject to your direction or control. And the fur- 
ther judgment of the court is, that this sentence shall 
remain in full force and virtue so long as the war between 
the North and the South continues. 

" To you, Mr. Provost-Marshal, the court begs to say 
that you will not permit Mr. D. to leave your custody 
until he has fully executed this order; and should he 
refuse, or even hesitate, you will at once lock him up 
in the county jail, and report to this court for further 
orders. 

" To you, Mr. and Mrs. H., the court begs to return not 
only its thanks, but the thanks of every peace-loving, 
mercy-loving, freedom-loving citizen of this community, 
for having brought this case before the court, and thereby 
put a check, if not an entire stop, to an evil which other- 
wise might have grown to huge proportions; and, as 
a further manifestation of your good hearts, the court 
requests that you will take Mary and her daughter in 



JUDGE FREESE S "BAYONET COURT. I99 

your own employ, until such time as a better arrangement 
can be effected, if that be ever possible. 

"The court stands adjourned until to-morrow at ten 
o'clock." 

While the Judge was delivering this sentence, perfect 
silence prevailed ; but the moment he closed, a buzz of 
approval ran throughout the court-room, amounting al- 
most to cheers. Mr. D. and his attorney, and the few 
friends immediately about him, looked like so many dark 
thunder-clouds in a clear sky; but the contrast only made 
the sky to appear the brighter. The crowd dispersed. 
The sentinels present, at a shoulder-arms, with fixed 
bayonets, at once formed a front and rear guard to the 
Provost-Marshal and his prisoner, and, when on the street, 
a hollow-square, until they reached the Provost- Marshal's 
office. A permit, such as the court had directed, was 
then prepared, to which Mr. D. put his hand and seal, 
with the Provost-Marshal as a witness. The Provost- 
Marshal then went with Mary and her daughter (Mr. D. 
still accompanying and not yet discharged) to Mr. D.'s 
house, where the two servants were permitted to gather 
together their clothing and whatever else they claimed as 
theirs. Mrs. D. was at first disposed to refuse the ser- 
vants their clothing, or anything else, and to talk loudly 
against the injustice of the court, etc. ; but a word of 
caution from the Provost-Marshal, and a beseeching look 
from her husband, effectually closed her lips. When 
Mary and Jane had got all together, in such bundle as 
they could easily carry, the Marshal accompanied them 
to the residence of Mrs. H. and there left them. 

Mrs. H. met them in the entry-way, and the moment 
they saw her, both servants fell on their knees and begged 
to kiss her hand, or even the hem of her garment. They 
wept and laughed alternately, and it was some time be- 
fore she could get them to arise from their knees and go 



200 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

to the room which had been prepared for them. The 
transition from slavery to virtual freedom, from constant 
dread to free volition, to what had seemed to them a hell 
to what now seemed to them a heaven, had been so sud- 
den, that they could scarcely realize it as possible ; and, 
when they reached the room assigned them, both again 
fell on their knees, and for a full hour returned thanks to 
God for his mercy and loving-kindness, and implored 
blessings on those who had shown them such unexpected 
kindness. Both Mary and her daughter were mem.bers 
of the Methodist Church — the former had been so for 
many years — and both had always led, so far as was 
known, consistent Christian lives. 

The result of the trial was soon in the mouths of every- 
body, some condemning, but a large majority approving. 
The effect was, that not a single similar case was brought 
before the court after that. The warning of the court was 
so plain and pointed that all who owned slaves in Alex- 
andria felt that they knew, as well before as after, what 
punishment would follow ill-treatment, and none were 
ill-treated. 

Had like courts followed the army, or been established 
in every city of the South on the day they fell into the 
hands of Union troops, what immense suffering might 
have been saved; how many rescued from premature 
graves, caused by inhuman treatment; and how many 
thousands could have been given the blessed boon of 
freedom, who were run into Texas, thence to Cuba and 
Brazil, and thence consigned to a fate worse than death 
itself! 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY, 
PREJUDICE AND SELF-INTEREST PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

THE definition given by lexicographers to the word 
loyalty, namely, " faithful to the lawful government/' 
is so plain that no one can fail to comprehend it ; and yet 
such were the complications in the late war between the 
United States and the Confederate States, that to no word 
could a greater variety of significations have been given. 
The Northern man claimed that to be loyal one must be 
faithful to the United States government, and all who were 
not so were rebels. The Southern man claimed that, after 
the organization of the Confederate States government, 
no man south of " Mason and Dixon's line " could be re- 
garded as loyal who was not in favor of, and faithful to, 
that government. The extreme State-rights man claimed 
that to be loyal one must be faithful to the government 
of the State in which he resided, or of which he was a 
native. Each claimed theirs, and theirs only, to be the 
" lawful " government, and insisted that to be loyal one 
must be faithful to it, and to it alone, and that any lack 
of fidelity thereto was disloyalty, and could be nothing 
else. 

To illustrate by a figure once before used in this vol- 
ume — that of a divorce suit between man and wife — it is 
easy enough to see how the children, taking the side of 
the father, might charge those who took the side of the 
mother with disloyalty to the family, and how those tak- 
ing the side of the mother might retort by saying that 

203 



204 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the mother was quite as much a part of the family as the 
father, and that those who opposed her were more dis- 
loyal to the family than themselves. Thus criminations 
and recriminations might pass between the children of a 
divided household — divided in sentiment, if not yet by 
law — and if a third party were called in as arbitrator, it 
would be no easy matter for him to decide which of the 
two was right and which wrong. Viewing the subject 
from this stand-point, now that the prejudices and excite- 
ments of the war are over, it is not difficult to understand 
how President Davis, General Lee, General Beauregard, 
General Polk, and their adherents, regarded themselves 
quite as loyal as President Lincoln, General Grant, Gen- 
eral Sherman, General Sheridan, and their followers. 
Each regarded theirs as the '^lawful government," and 
that only by adhering to it, by being faithful to it, could 
one justly claim to be loyal. 

But there was a third class in the war, who, while claim- 
ing to be faithful to one government, were, at heart, in 
favor of the other ; who only wore the " garb of heaven " 
that they might the better " serve the devil ; " who were 
ever ready to make promises to both sides, but who were 
true to neither ; men who, like Marlborough, while pre- 
tending to be faithful to William III., was really plot- 
ting to restore James IL So well laid were Marlbor- 
ough's plans, that Macaulay says, " Had Marlborough, 
therefore, after securing the cooperation of some distin- 
guished officers, presented himself at the critical moment 
to those regiments which he had led to victory in Flan- 
ders and in Ireland, had he called on them to rally around 
him, to protect the Parliament, and to drive out the aliens 
(William's friends), there is strong reason to think that 
the call would have been obeyed." 

Writing of the disloyalty and treachery of many who 
surrounded the throne of William and Mary at that time 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 20$ 

(1691), Macaulay says: "Wicked and base as their con- 
duct was, there was nothing in it surprising. They did 
after their kind. The times were troubled. A thick cloud 
was upon the future. The most sagacious and experi- 
enced politician could not see with any clearness three 
months before him. To a man of virtue and honor, in- 
deed, this mattered little. His uncertainty as to what the 
morrow would bring forth, might make him anxious, but 
could not make him perfidious. Though left in utter 
darkness as to what concerned his interests, he had the 
sure guidance of his principles. But, unhappily, men of 
virtue and honor were not numerous among the courtiers 
of that age. Whitehall had been, during thirty years, a 
seminary of every public and private vice, and swarmed 
with low-minded, double-dealing, self-seeking politicians. 
The politicians now acted as it was natural that men pro- 
foundly immoral should act at a crisis of which none 
could predict the issue. Some of them might have a 
slight predilection for William ; others a slight predilec- 
tion for James ; but it was not by any such predilection 
that the conduct of any of the breed was guided. If it 
had seemed certain that William would stand, they would 
all have been for William. If it had seemed certain that 
James would be restored, they would all have been for 
James. But what was to be done when the chances ap- 
peared to be almost exactly balanced ? There were hon- 
est men of one party who would have answered, * To stand 
by the true king and the true church, and, if necessary, 
die for them like Laud.' There were honest men of the 
other party who would have answered, * To stand by the 
liberties of England and the Protestant religion, and, if 
necessary, die for them like Sidney.' But such consistency 
was unintelligible to many of the noble and the powerful. 
Their object was to be safe in every event. They there- 
fore openly took the oath of allegiance to one king, and 
18 



206 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

secretly plighted their word to the other. They were in- 
defatigable in obtaining commissions, patents of peerage, 
pensions, grants of crown land, under the great seal of 
William, and they had in their secret drawers promises 
of pardon in the handwriting of James." 

Now let the reader turn back and read this extract and 
the one preceding it about Marlborough, both from Ma- 
caulay's History of England, over again, carefully and 
considerately — putting the name of Abraham Lincoln in 
the place of William, wherever it occurs ; and the name 
of Jefferson Davis in place of James, wherever it occurs, 
and whatever name he pleases in place of Marlborough's, 
and he will, we think, be entirely competent to draw his 
own similitudes, and to understand the causes of many 
things heretofore related in this volume, and of some 
which we purpose to relate in this chapter. 

Another class of cases occasionally brought before the 
Provost-Court, at Alexandria, related to loyalty. To re- 
late the details of one or two of these cases will give to 
the reader a general conception of the whole. 

Mr. E.'s usual residence was in Sussex County, New 
Jersey, but in some way, and at some time, he became 
the owner of a farm not many miles from Alexandria, 
Virginia. In throwing up earth-works at Munson's Hill 
and at other points, with a view to protect Washington 
and Alexandria, it so happened that Mr. E.'s farm was 
left about one mile outside of the Union lines. And it so 
happened, too, that the Confederates, in establishing their 
picket-line and temporary works of defence, made them 
about one mile the other side of Mr. E.'s farm. This left 
him literally " between two fires,'' for the mounted can- 
non on either side could throw a ball into his house at 
any moment, and squads of cavalry from both sides oc- 
casionally visited his house. Had he continued to look 
after his farming operations, and those only, he would 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 20/ 

probably not have been seriously disturbed by either side; 
but the love of the almighty dollar so far prevailed over 
his better judgment and his loyalty, that he concluded to 
try merchandising, in a surreptitious way, at his own 
farm-house. For years previous he had been in the habit 
of purchasing the supplies for his farm in Alexandria, 
which, with the fact that he was a Northern man and was 
presumed to be, as he professed to be, entirely loyal to* 
the United States government, made it no trouble for him 
to procure passes in and out of the Union lines, whenever 
he had occasion to use them. After awhile it was ob- 
served that he passed in and out of the lines much oftener 
than he had been in the habit of doing when the line was 
first established, and that he usually drove a two-horse 
wagon, with a cloth cover over it, and apparently well filled 
within. It was observed, too, by officers, with their field- 
glasses, from the works at Munson's Hill, that Confeder- 
ate cavalry visited Mr. E.'s house much oftener than they 
had been in the habit of doing during the first months 
of the war, and how many, both of cavalry and infantry, 
visited his place at night, of course they had no means 
of knowing. When Union cavalry or infantry visited his 
house, they never saw anything more than was usual 
about farm-houses, and he always welcomed them with 
the utmost cordiality. He regretted, he said, that Con- 
federate soldiers visited his house so often. They seemed, 
he said, to suspicion that he was too intensely Union, but 
he quieted them by saying that while, of course, he was 
a Union man, and could be nothing else, yet he meant to 
be entirely neutral so long as the war continued, and, 
while he could do nothing for them, he would do nothing 
against them. The peculiarity of his situation, between 
the two lines, made this answer seem entirely reasonable 
to the Unionists who visited him, or who questioned him 



208 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

at any time, and passes continued to be issued to him 
whenever he applied for them. 

Thus matters went on for weeks and months, until one 
day, when he was about passing a sentinel's post, the sen- 
tinel had the curiosity, not only to inquire, but to make 
a careful examination, of what he had in his wagon. He 
^ found barrels of sugar, bags of coffee, chests of tea, sacks 
of salt, barrels of whiskey, and such other articles as are 
usually kept and sold at country stores. The sentinel 
asked Mr. E. if he did not keep a store ? Oh, no, he 
said, he bought these things all for his own use and for 
the use of his servants on the farm, of whom he had a 
large number. He never sold an ounce of anything to 
anybody, and kept his supplies so concealed that when 
rebels came to his house, as they did sometimes, they 
never could see anything* On no consideration would 
he sell or give anything to the rebels, and the Union sol- 
diers, of course, never had occasion to buy anything out- 
side of their lines. 

His manner, as well as his words, still further excited 
the suspicion of the sentinel, and so soon as he was re- 
lieved he went to his captain and told him all that had 
occurred. The captain reported the facts to his colonel, 
and received orders from him to instruct the sentinel on 
that post that when Mr. E. next attempted to pass out of 
the lines with a load of groceries to halt him, and bring 
him and his wagon to the regimental headquarters. Only 
a few days elapsed, when Mr. E. again attempted to pass 
out with a heavier load than at any time previous. When 
he showed his pass, as usual, the sentinel replied that his 
orders were to halt him until he could call the corporal 
of the guard. Mr. E. protested against the unnecessary 
detention, but, as the sentinel would not yield, he could 
do nothing else than wait until the corporal came. The 
corporal informed him that he must turn his team about 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 2O9 

and accompany him to the regimental headquarters. Mr. 
E. was now more alarmed than ever, and tried first to 
cajole and then to bribe the corporal and the sentinel to 
let him pass, but they would not listen to his overtures. 
Finding no other way, he turned his team about and ac- 
companied the corporal to the regimental headquarters. 
The colonel examined Mr. E.'s load and found that it 
consisted principally of groceries. In reply to the ques- 
tion, What he did with them ? he answered the colonel, as 
he had before answered the sentinel, that he used them 
for himself and the servants on his farm ; that he did not 
sell an ounce to the rebels; would not, under any cir- 
cumstances, etc., etc. The colonel listened respectfully 
to all that Mr. E. said, but did not believe a word of it. 
When he had finished, the colonel replied, very calmly 
but very determinately, that as Mr. E. was a private citi- 
zen, and could not, therefore, be tried by a court-martial, 
he must accompany him next morning to Alexandria, 
that all the facts of the case might be laid before the 
Provost-Judge of that city for such action as he might 
think proper. Meanwhile, his team and his goods would 
be well taken care of, and he should regard himself as in 
arrest. Mr. E. protested, but soon became satisfied that 
he was in the hands of one who could not be cajoled or 
trifled with, and that submission was his only course. 

Next morning the colonel, accompanied by Mr. E., the 
corporal, and the two sentinels — the one who had ex- 
amined Mr. E.'s load the first time and the one who had 
detained him last — went to Alexandria, reaching there 
about nine o'clock. They went direct to the general 
headquarters, and the colonel at once communicated all 
the facts to Judge Freese. He replied that the provost- 
court met at ten o'clock, and that so soon as all other 
cases had been adjudicated this case should be heard, 
18* o 



210 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

and that the colonel, his prisoner, and his witnesses 
should be in attendance. 

Promptly at ten o'clock the court opened. A dozen or 
more cases were heard and adjudicated, after which the 
case of Mr. E. was called. The first witness — the first 
sentinel — gave in his testimony just as detailed hereto- 
fore. The second sentinel and the corporal did the same. 
The colonel then related all that he knew about the case, 
and in the course of his testimony, said that he had 
known of Mr. E. ever since encamped where he then 
was; that he had frequently heard other officers speak 
of him; that he, with others, had often watched Mr. 
E.'s house through their field-glasses, and frequently seen 
rebel officers and privates coming and going ; that for a 
week previous Mr. E. had gone backwards and forwards 
through the lines every day or two, usually in a two- 
horse covered wagon, and dressed as a hard-working 
farmer ; that he always had with him a permit from the 
general commanding to pass in and out, and that his sen- 
tinels had never thought to question his right so to do 
until after the one sentinel took the liberty of looking 
in Mr. E.'s wagon, and found it filled with boxes and 
barrels ; that since then he had talked the matter over 
with the general and several other officers, and all agreed 
in the opinion that Mr. E. was selling these supplies to 
the enemy ; that, thereupon, he had directed the sentinel 
upon that post to be instructed to arrest him and bring 
him to his headquarters should he again attempt to pass 
with a loaded wagon ; that his wagon, when so arrested, 
was loaded, as heavily as two horses could well draw, with 
groceries, liquors, etc., and that the team, wagon, grocer- 
ies, and liquors were now in his camp subject to any 
order the court might make. 

Mr. E. was then called upon by the court to present 
any witnesses he might have, or to offer himself as a 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 211 

witness, or to say anything he could in his own defence, 
or all together, if he chose. 

Mr. E. replied that he had no witnesses to offer, but, 
if the court please, would like to make a statement. He 
then repeated about the same story he had told the sentinel 
and the colonel, and added, that in Sussex County, New 
Jersey, where he was well known, nobody doubted his 
loyalty ; that his father had, at one time, been a member 
of Congress from that State, and that he himself would 
probably have raised a company or a regiment of volun- 
teers when the war commenced had he not owned this 
plantation in Virginia and had it to look after. He 
insisted upon his loyalty, and strongly urged his imme- 
diate release from arrest. 

The court replied that cases of this kind were exceed- 
ingly perplexing at all times, and he, the Judge, would 
only be too glad if there were some other tribunal to 
which they could be referred ; but as there was not, 
he could not do less than hear them, and after hearing, if 
he found cause for action, he could not do less than act. 
** In this case it was perfectly plain to the court that, not- 
withstanding Mr. E.'s denial, he had been selling grocer- 
ies, liquors, etc., to officers and privates of General Lee's 
army, and might, therefore, fairly be presumed to have 
given * aid and comfort to the enemy.' But the court 
did not believe that it had been done with any such intent. 
On the contrary, the court believed that it was the love 
of money — which is said to be the ' root of all evil ' — 
that had induced the defendant to do just what he had 
done. Mr. E. is one of the thousands and tens of thou- 
sands throughout the North who, while making loud 
professions of loyalty, are all the while looking out for 
the * main chance ; ' whose loyalty goes no deeper than 
their pockets ; whose self-interests so far overbalance any 
sentiment of patriotism or loyalty, that they would be 



212 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Lincoln men, or Davis men, just as they thought the one 
or the other was likely to win ; who, while claiming the 
protection of one government and getting from it all they 
could, were all the while profuse in promises to the other, 
and ready to do for it whatever they could, whereby to 
put dollars in their own pockets or honors upon their 
own heads or shoulders. Nor is this sentiment confined 
to farmers and merchants, but the court regrets to have to 
believe it is to be found in the army, in the navy, in the 
very presence-chamber of the chief executive, and what 
is true of the North, the court has no doubt is equally 
true of the South, though not probably to so great an 
extent. 

" In this case the defendant, doubtless, excused himself 
somewhat on the ground that he was doing it upon his 
own property, and that he was doing it as a matter of 
self-preservation, which, as has been well said, is the 'first 
law of nature.' But while such pleas would be entirely 
valid in time of peace, they are not valid in time of war. 
At such a time, all private interests have to yield to the 
public good, and what may seem like the taking away of 
natural rights from the one, may be justice, only justice, 
to the many. The defendant, too, though a man of gen- 
eral intelligence, was probably not aware that he was 
violating any law. State or national, in doing what he did. 

" Viewing the case from all these stand-points, the 
court has decided to suspend sentence upon this defend- 
ant until he shall be again found violating, or not fulfilling, 
the orders of the court. Meanwhile, the court orders that 
the goods now in Mr. E.'s wagon shall be brought back 
to Alexandria and returned to the parties from whom 
they were purchased; that, immediately after, whatever 
other goods may be found upon Mr. E.'s premises (other 
than enough to support the servants on the place for one 
month, if any servants at all be found there) shall be 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 213 

brought to this city and returned in like manner ; that, 
after remaining one week longer on his farm, to * put his 
house in order,' Mr. E. shall return to his home in Sussex 
County, New Jersey, and remain there until the war closes; 
that, if at any time after one week Mr. E. be found upon 
his farm, or in Alexandria, he be at once rearrested and 
brought before this court for sentence upon the charges 
now pending ; and, if so brought, the defendant may rest 
assured that he will not have opportunity to give the 
enemy any aid and comfort after that. 

" With you, Colonel W., the court leaves the execution 
of this order in all its details, and, while thanking you 
for what you have already done, will thank you still more 
when you have rendered this additional service for the 
government." 

The court then adjourned, and, of the large number 
present, there was probably not one, save the extremists 
on either side, who might be counted on one's fingers 
who did not approve of the action of the court in the 
case. It need only be added that the orders of the court 
were carried out to the letter; that Mr. E. returned to 
his home in New Jersey and remained there until the 
war ended. 

Another case, of altogether a different character, and 
yet involving the same principle — namely, that of disloy- 
alty to the government by aiding the enemy in a surrepti- 
tious way — occurred not long after and was as follows : 

The ** Hutchinson Family," who had been giving a se- 
i ries of concerts in Washington, was invited by some New 
. England regiments, encamped not far from Alexandria, 
I to come to their encampments and give a series of concerts. 
The "Family" had accepted the invitation and given 
several concerts in pursuance thereof. Of course, their 
programme was made up largely of war lyrics — at that 
time by far the most popular songs with a Northern 



214 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

audience, and especially with soldiers — among which was 
that wonderful, soul-stirring poem by the Quaker poet, 
John G. Whittier, as follows : 

"We wait beneath the furnace blast 
The pangs of transformation ; 
Not painlessly doth God recast 
And mould anew the nation. 
Hot burns the fire 
Where wrongs expire; 
Nor spares the hand 
That from the land 
Uproots the ancient evil. 

*'The hand-breadth cloud the sages feared. 
Its bloody rain is dropping; 
The poison-plant the fathers spared 
All else is overtopping. 

East, West, South, North, 
It curses the earth: 
All justice dies. 
And fraud and lies 
Live only in its shadow. 

"What gives the wheat-field blades of steel? 
What points the rebel cannon ? 
What sets the roaring rabble's heel 
On the old star-spangled pennon? 
What breaks the oath 
Of the men o' the South? 
What whets the knife 
For the Union's life ? — 
Hark to the answer: Slavery! 

"Then waste no blows on lesser foes, 
In strife unworthy freemen ; 
God lifts to-day the veil, and shows 
The features of the demon* 
O North and South' 
Its victims both, 
Can ye not cry, 
'Let Slavery die!* 
And Union find in freedom? 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 21$ 

** What though the cast-out spirit tear 
The nation in his going? 
We who have shared the guilt must share 
The pang of his o'erthrowing ! 
Whate'er the loss, 
Whate'er the cross, 
Shall they complain 
Of present pain, 
Who trust in God's hereafter? 

"For who that leans on his right arm 
Was ever yet forsaken? 
What righteous cause can suffer harm, 
If He its part has taken? 
Thougii wild and loud, 
And dark the cloud. 
Behind its folds 
His hand upholds 
The calm sky of to-morrow ! 

"Above the maddening cry for blood, 
Above the wild war-drumming, 
Let Freedom's voice be heard, with good 
The evil overcoming. 

Give prayer and purse 
To stay The Curse, 
Whose wrong we share. 
Whose shame we bear, 
Whose end shall gladden Heaven! 

" In vain the bells of war shall ring 
Of triumphs and revenges. 
While still is spared the evil thing 
That severs and estranges. 
But blest the ear 
That yet shall hear 
The jubilant bell 
That rings the knell 
Of Slavery forever ! 

"Then let the selfish lip be dumb. 
And hushed the breath of sighing ; 



2l6 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION, 

Before the joy of peace must come 
The pains of purifying. 

God give us grace, 

Each in his place 

To bear his lot, 

And, murmuring not, 
Endure, and wait, and labor!** 

To this was added another of Whittier's poems, called 
The Crisis, as follows : 

" The crisis presses on us ; face to face with us it stands. 
With solemn lips of question, like the Sphinx in Egypt's sands ! 
This day we fashion Destiny, our web of fate we spin ; 
This day for all hereafter choose we holiness or sin; 
Even now from starry Gerizim, or Ebal's cloudy crown, 
We call the dews of blessing, or the bolts of cursing down ! 

"By all for which the martyrs bore their agony and shame; 
By all the warning words of truth with which the prophets came ; 
By the future which awaits us ; by all the hopes which cast 
Their faint and trembling beams across the blackness of the past, 
And in the awful name of Him who for earth's freedom died; 
O ye people, O my brothers! let us choose the righteous side! 

** So shall the Northern pioneer go joyfully on his way. 
To wed Penobscot's waters to San Francisco's bay; 
To make the rugged places smooth, and sow the vales with grain. 
And bear, with Liberty and Law, the Bible in his train ; 
The mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall answer sea; 
And mountain unto mountain call: Praise God, for we are 
FREE ! " 

Though the regiments to which they sang were made up 
principally of anti-slavery men, yet there were a few pro- 
slavery men among them, and these objected, loudly and 
vehemently, to introducing or stimulating anti-slavery 
sentiments among the soldiers. Especially did they ob- 
ject to those lines by Whittier. This caused considerable 
discussion among both officers and men, which, through 
one of the pro-slavery officers, finally reached the ears of 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 21/ 

General McClellan, then in command of the forces south 
of the Potomac. The General, for reasons best known 
to himself, thereupon issued an order to the " Hutchin- 
son Family " to sing no more in the camps, and retire at 
once. 

In obedience to this order, the "Family " left the camps 
and came to Alexandria, on their way to Washington. 
The reason for their leaving the camps had reached Alex- 
andria before the coming of themselves, and had produced 
a very strong feeling among the Union men of the city 
against General McClellan, and in favor of the Hutchin- 
sons. On reaching there, they were called upon by a 
number of leading citizens, among whom was Hon. Louis 
McKenzie, afterwards a member of Congress from that 
district, and then and always a consistent Union man. They 
requested the Hutchinsons to give a concert in the city 
before leaving, and promised them a large and sympa- 
thizing audience. The Hutchinsons were entirely willing 
to give a concert, provided they could be assured of pro- 
tection ; but, having just been ordered by General McClel- 
lan to leave his command, they feared to sing again 
south of the Potomac, unless they had permission, and 
promise of protection, from the local authorities. This 
the callers promised to procure, and at once went to the 
general headquarters for that purpose. 

They at first called upon General Montgomery. He, 
while entirely sympathizing with their wishes, hesitated 
about giving such formal permission, or promising any 
such protection, for the reason, that, being within Gen- 
eral McClellan's command, the General might regard it 
as a contempt of his order to the Hutchinsons ; neverthe- 
less he would impose no objections of any kind, and rec- 
ommended the applicants to see Judge Freese about it. 
General Montgomery really desired to do all that the com- 
mittee requested ; but, for the reasons above stated, pre- 
'9 



2l8 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

ferred that Judge Freese should do it, by virtue of his 
milito-civic authority as judge of the provost-court. 

The committee next called upon the Provost-Judge and 
laid all the facts before him, stating that General Mont- 
gomery had suggested that they call upon him. They 
urgently requested Judge Freese to grant the needed per- 
mission, with promise of personal protection. The Judge 
did not hesitate a moment to grant both requests. He 
told the committee that if the court, backed by the pro- 
vost-guard, was not strong enough to protect peaceable 
citizens in the giving of a concert, no matter what was 
sung, the sooner the people knew it the better, and he 
was ready to test the matter at once. As to General Mc- 
Clellan's order, he regarded it as wholly unreasonable, 
and the army regulations required no officer to obey an 
** unreasonable " order. While he had a very high regard 
personally for General McClellan, he thought, in this 
matter, he had given too much heed to the enemies, and 
too little heed to the friends, of the government; and, 
whatever might be the consequences to himself, he had 
no hesitancy in granting the asked-for permission and 
promise of protection, even though General McClellan or 
his friends should regard it in direct contumacy of his 
order to the Hutchinsons. The Judge further said to 
the committee, that he "particularly desired Whittiefs 
great poem to be sung, nor need the singers hesitate to in- 
troduce other war lyrics ®f like character — the more the 
better." 

The committee then procured one of the churches in 
which to hold the concert, and fixed upon the evening of 
the next day as the time. Meanwhile the Provost-Judge 
directed the Provost-Marshal to double the number of 
guards throughout the city for that night, from eight to 
twelve o'clock, and to have all who were not on post at 



LOYALTY VERSUS DISLOYALTY. 2I9 

the church while the concert was being held — each with 
loaded musket and fixed bayonet. 

The news of the proposed concert spread rapidly- 
through the city, and when the evening and hour arrived, 
every seat in the church was filled, while hundreds were 
gathered outside. The windows of the church were thrown 
wide open, that the citizens and soldiers outside might 
the better hear the words and music. The Provost-Judge 
and Provost-Marshal took seats near the outer door, and 
it was observed that while they seemed to give one ear 
to the music, the other was given outside, to catch the 
first note of alarm, should any occur. General Mont- 
gomery expressed a very strong desire to attend the con- 
cert, but, out of courtesy to General McClellan, his com- 
manding officer, thought he had better not, and therefore 
stayed away. The concert proceeded without an iota of 
disturbance, and gave great pleasure to the many hundreds 
present. Whittier's poem, and several others of like 
character, were so encored that the singers were obliged 
to repeat them. When the concert had ended, the Provost- 
Judge and Provost-Marshal, with the guard which had 
been stationed about the church, accompanied the Hutch- 
insons to their lodgings, and left them in care of trusted 
friends. They were not disturbed through the night, and 
left next morning for Washington, well pleased with their 
stop-over at Alexandria. 

This was not only a triumph over disloyalty, but another 
instance strongly illustrating the restraining power which 
the provost-court held in that community. The day pre- 
ceding the concert, and the day of the evening on which 
it was held, there were loud threats not only among avowed 
secessionists, but among anti-administration men, that the 
concert should not be given. Their own personal and po- 
litical prejudices had been so aroused, backed and stim- 
ulated by General McClellan's order, that a single spark 



220 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

would have ignited their whole magazine of passion ; and 
but for the wholesome dread which they had of Judge 
Freese's " Bayonet Court," as they were then in the habit 
of calling it, that spark would undoubtedly have been 
applied. 

The love of money, old political prejudices, and inor- 
dinate ambition, were the three vile roots from which 
most of disloyalty sprang during the late war, both in 
the North and in the South ; and the illustrations given 
in this chapter are but two of hundreds which might be 
given, if the proposed limits of this volume would allow. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. 
ERROR AND PREJUDICE PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

ANOTHER class of cases brought before the provost- 
court at Alexandria related to disloyalty as affecting 
the property-rights of individuals. In the hasty evacua- 
tion of the city, when the Union troops were about com- 
ing in, many had left their carpets, furniture, pianos, beds 
and bedding, cooking utensils, everything, indeed, except 
the clothing upon their persons and such few things as 
they could pack in trunks. In some cases, persons re- 
maining in Alexandria had been given the keys of aban- 
doned houses and stores and the goods within left in their 
charge ; but in other cases, so great had been the fright 
and haste of the occupants, that even this precaution had 
not been observed. What was true of Alexandria was no 
less true of the country for several miles around. As 
regiment after regiment came over from Washington and 
encamped at points from one to five miles west and south 
of Alexandria, they found many farm-houses and gentle- 
men's residences abandoned, in which had been left the 
furniture, the pianos, the beds and bedding, and whatever 
else could not be carried away in trunks. Of course, all 
such abandoned residences were appropriated for head- 
quarters of divisions, brigades, and regiments, so far as 
they were needed for such purposes ; and, in Alexandria, 
such residences as were not needed for headquarters were 
quickly applied for (or taken possession of in many cases 
without any application to the General commanding) by 

22:^ 



224 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

those who came to the city for purposes of trade, and for 
other purposes. 

Thus far everything progressed with what seemed to be 
a sort of general consent ; but pretty soon a new class of 
questions arose, in which there was a decided difference 
of opinion, not only as between Union citizens and seces- 
sionists, but between Union officers and Union soldiers 
as well. These questions arose from an assumed right, 
upon the part of some, to appropriate for their own indi- 
vidual use and profit whatever had been abandoned by 
those who had gone into the Confederate lines, and who 
thereby had openly declared themselves not only disloyal, 
but hostile, to the United States government. 

Those who assumed such right, attempted to justify 
their opinions and their acts by referring to the Act of 
the United States Congress of August, 1861, by which 
all property used for insurrectionary purposes was made 
liable to confiscation; and they further claimed that it 
was but a fair retaliation to the Act of the Confederate 
Congress, by which the property of all Union men, living 
within the Confederate lines, was made liable to seques- 
tration. 

General Montgomery was among those who believed 
that, while the army, as an army, had a right to make use 
of property abandoned by an enemy, individuals, whether 
as officers, soldiers, or citizens, had no such right ; and 
among his first acts, after being appointed Military Gov- 
ernor of Alexandria, was to direct his Assistant Adjutant- 
General to issue an order forbidding the use of abandoned 
property, without permission first had from general head- 
quarters; and when the provost-court was established, 
he directed Judge Freese to see that that order be in no 
way violated or evaded. In every case reported to the 
Judge, where an attempt was made to take an article from 
an abandoned house and appropriate it to the private use 



DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING PROPERTY. 225 

of the taker, whether officer, soldier, or citizen, the party 
was directed to refrain, or, if already taken, to return it at 
once, under the penalty of arrest and punishment. This 
soon became so generally understood in Alexandria that 
no further attempt was made to appropriate abandoned 
property for private use and profit there; but, after a 
time, a case arose from the country, which required the 
interposition of the court, a trial of the case, and a judg- 
ment ; and it is this case which we now propose to relate. 
Dr. W. was the assistant surgeon of the Fourth Vol- 
unteers, and as good a man, in every respect, as one often 
meets. When the government called for troops, he was 
among the first to offer his services, though at that time 
doing a large practice, having a large family to support, 
and having but little of this world's goods ; and when the 
Fourth regiment was organized, the governor of his State 
appointed him its assistant surgeon. This regiment was 
among the first to reach Washington, and the second to 
establish a camp beyond Alexandria. The colonel of 
the regiment was a wide-awake New Englander, an in- 
tense anti-slavery man, an ardent admirer and supporter 
of President Lincoln, one who believed that a secessionist, 
by becoming disloyal to the government, forfeited all the 
rights he ever possessed, and that this forfeiture extended 
to property quite as well as to personal rights. Though 
he was never known to appropriate any abandoned prop- 
erty to his own private use or profit, yet he had no scru- 
ples of using it himself, and of allowing others of his regi- 
ment to use whatever fell in their way ; and if any of 
his officers or soldiers asked to appropriate to their own 
use anything which they had found, he never answered 
nay. That he was entirely conscientious in all this, no 
one that knew the man doubted for a moment, however 
much they might differ with him in political opinion.. 
With a commanding officer holding such decided views, 

P 



226 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

it was not at all surprising that his lieutenant-colonel, 
major, assistant-surgeon, adjutant, and almost, if not 
quite, every company officer should, erelong, become as 
decided as himself upon this question. 

Near the spot on which they fixed for an encampment 
was a large house, which had been abandoned by its 
owner and occupant on the morning that the Union 
troops marched into Alexandria. So hasty had been the 
flight that even the breakfast-table, with the dishes upon 
it, was left standing in the centre of the dining-room. 
Not an article of furniture, so far as could be seen, had 
been removed. The house had been well furnished, and, 
among other things, had a piano, about half worn. This 
had doubtless been played upon by daughters of the 
family as well as by the wife, as there were articles 
lying about the parlor which plainly indicated recent 
occupancy by young ladies. The piano stood open when 
the colonel, doctor, and other of his officers first entered 
the house, and that most exquisite of all musical compo- 
sitions, " Home, Sweet Home," was open on the music- 
holder. 

This house the colonel at once appropriated for the 
headquarters of his regiment, and not only he, but his 
lieutenant-colonel, major, doctor, and adjutant slept and 
messed there. They slept in the beds, lounged on the 
sofas, ate from the table, drank from the sideboard, and 
used nearly everything about the house except the piano. 
No one of the officers played, and erelong the piano be- 
came one of the neglected, if not one of the useless, arti- 
cles about the house. One day, when they were all 
lounging in the parlor, the doctor said to the colonel : 

" What a world of pleasure that piano would give my 
wife and daughters if I only had it at my own home ! " 

" Well," replied the colonel, *' why then don't you send 
it to your own home ? The owner, or once owner — for I 



DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING PROPERTY. 22/ 

hold, you know, that rebels forfeit everything, even their 
lives — is not here to object, and I am sure I won't." 

This led to a general conversation on the subject 
among all the officers present, the conclusion of which 
was that the doctor should have the piano boxed, and 
sent to his family as soon as he could conveniently. This, 
of course, pleased the doctor greatly, and on the follow- 
ing day he got together boards, and a carpenter, had a 
suitable box made, the piano carefully packed, and on the 
day following sent it to Alexandria, with orders to have 
it forwarded to his home, in New England, as speedily as 
possible. When it was being unloaded at the shipping 
warehouse, one of the provost-guard chanced to be pres- 
ent, and inquired of those who brought it where it came 
from, who sent it, and where it was being sent to ? Those 
who brought it answered all these questions without hesi- 
tancy, nor did they see any wrong in all that was being 
done ; but the provost-guard, knowing what the orders in 
the city were upon that subject, felt it to be his duty to 
inform the Provost-Marshal of what he had seen, and no 
sooner did the Marshal learn of it, than he informed the 
Provost-Judge. 

The Judge directed the Marshal to go at once to the 
shipping merchant, and direct him not to send that box 
away until further orders from the court. He next 
directed the Marshal to call that afternoon upon the 
doctor and the colonel, and request their presence at 
the court-room next morning at ten o'clock. Should 
they decline to attend by request, to inform him at once, 
when he would order their arrest ; but he much preferred 
to have all the facts inquired into without arrests, if it 
could be done as well. The Marshal called upon the 
colonel and the doctor that same afternoon, delivered the 
Judge's message, and both promised to be at the court- 
room next morning without fail. 



228 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

Promptly, as per promise, the colonel, the doctor, and 
several other officers of the regiment were at the court- 
room next morning. The doctor, it was plain to see, 
felt a little skary, but the colonel was so confident of the 
justice of his case that he rejoiced in the opportunity of 
convincing the Judge that for once, at least, he was in 
the wrong. When all the other cases before the court 
had been disposed of, the Judge turned to the doctor, 
and said : 

" Now the court will hear your case." 

The doctor at once arose, and said he was there in 
obedience to the orders of the court, but was not at all 
aware with what crime he was charged. 

. The Judge replied that, as yet, he was not accused of 
any crime, nor was he present by the " order," but rather 
by the request, of the court. The Judge then stated all 
that he had learned concerning the piano, and how he 
had directed the shipping merchant not to send it away 
until further orders from the court; that he had not issued 
an order for arrest, for the reason that he much preferred 
to have the whole matter inquired into amicably, as he 
was under the impression that all done thus far had been 
from error of judgment rather than from any intent to 
do wrong ; but, if this course were declined, then there 
was but one other way left — namely, arrest, trial, and 
judgment, whatever it might be. 

The doctor and the colonel both replied that they 
much preferred an amicable hearing of the case, and were 
ready, whenever it might please the court, to state all the 
facts within their knowledge, either under oath or upon 
their honors as gentlemen and officers. 

The Judge expressed his pleasure at this frank manner 
of meeting the case, and told the doctor to proceed, 
** upon his honor as a gentleman and officer," to state all 
the facts of the case within his knowledge — to which he 



DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING PROPERTY. 229 

might add any arguments he pleased by way of justifi- 
cation. 

The doctor, thus assured and placed entirely at his 
ease, proceeded, in a calm, pleasant way, to state just 
what had occurred, and how it occurred, since their occu- 
pancy of that abandoned house. He particularly detailed 
the conversation that had incidentally occurred between 
the colonel and himself, which led to the packing up 
and sending away of the piano — all of which, he said, 
could be confirmed by several officers then in the court- 
room ; that he had done nothing secretly or surrepti- 
tiously, nor had he once dreamed that he was doing a 
wrong in anything he had done ; but if, in the judgment 
of the court, it was wrong, he was quite ready to undo 
all that he had done, and have the piano put back exactly 
where he had found it. As to the matter of justification, 
he preferred to leave that in the hands of his colonel, 
who had given to the subject more thought, and could 
better express those thoughts than himself. 

The Judge then extended to the colonel the same in- 
vitation he had given the doctor, and upon the same 
terms. The colonel thanked the Judge for the courtesy, 
and then proceeded to state the facts exactly as the 
doctor had stated them, and exactly as heretofore given 
in this chapter. This finished, he next entered upon an 
argument to prove that all that a man had of personal 
rights, of property, and even of life, he forfeited when 
he became disloyal to his government. He laid special 
stress upon the act of sequestration passed by the rebel 
or Confederate Congress, and said that the taking of 
abandoned property by Unionists on this side of the line 
was only a fair retaliation for what the rebels were doing 
with the Union people of the South. He also referred 
to the act of confiscation then recently passed by the 
United States Congress, and contended that if the gov- 



230 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

eminent thought it right to confiscate the property of 
rebels in a wholesale way, individuals were certainly jus- 
tified in doing it in a retail way. The colonel was 
earnest, at times quite eloquent, and certainly made the 
best argument that could possibly be made on that side 
of the question. 

When the colonel had finished, the Judge inquired 
whether any other person present desired to make a 
statement or an argument in the case. Being answered 
in the negative. Judge Freese then proceeded to state his 
own views as follows : 

" The court is obliged, very greatly obliged, both to 
the doctor and to the colonel, for the cordial manner in 
which they have met the issues of this case. The court 
was reasonably satisfied before, but is still better satisfied 
now, that nothing of wrong was intended in all that had 
been done ; that it was simply an error of judgment, and 
that none will be found more ready than themselves to 
correct the error so soon as they are satisfied that it is an 
error. About the facts of the case there is no dispute 
whatever. All the statements agree. The only question, 
therefore, is as to the reason or the law of the case. This 
court is not strictly a law court. It is rather a court of 
necessity — of a 'necessity that knows no law* — or of 
equity ; but in this particular case it might well afford to 
stand upon the law alone, even if there were no equities 
in the case to be considered. 

** The act passed by the United States Congress, on the 
6th of August last, known as the ' Confiscation Act,' pro- 
vides that, * in the present or any future insurrection, any 
property g-zven to aid such insurrection, or used for that 
purpose with the knowledge and consent of the owner, 
shall be subject to seizure and confiscation ; that actions 
for the condemnation of such property shall be brought 
in circuit, district, or admiralty courts having jurisdiction 



DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING PROPERTY. 23I 

of the amount, and that the attorney-general, or any dis- 
trict attorney, may institute proceedings, which in such 
cases shall be wholly for the beyiefit of the United States^ 
etc' It will be observed how carefully Congress has 
pointed out every step of the way by which this act shall 
be executed ; and in order to avoid any possibility of 
private peculation, the act says, in so many words, * such 
case shall be ivholly — not in part, but wholly — for the 
benefit of the United States.' There is nothing in this 
act to justify a private individual in taking so much as the 
value of a pin from a house abandoned by an avowed 
enemy, much less from the house of one who still claims 
the protection of the common laws of his country, though 
in temporary rebellion against the authorities now in 
power. The court, it will be remarked, puts emphasis 
upon the words private individual; for it holds that, for 
purposes of the army, for purposes of attack and defence, 
for purposes of sustenance and locomotion, or even for 
purposes of comfort, an army, or any regularly organized 
part of an army, may seize, hold, and use any property, 
real or personal, that may have belonged to those now in 
arms against that government. 

"The colonel has also referred to the act passed by 
the Confederate Congress, on the 30th of August last, 
known as the * Sequestration Act/ and thinks the passage 
of that act justifies Union men in appropriating to their 
own use any property that may have been abandoned by 
the enemy. That act was passed about three weeks after 
the * Confiscation Act * by the United States Congress, 
and shows upon its face that it was altogether retaliatory. 
Indeed, one section of the act says this in so many words. 
That section, which really gives the animus of the whole 
act, reads as follows : 

" ' Be it enacted by the Congress of the Confederate 
States, that all lands, goods, rights, and credits within 



232 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

these Confederate States owned by any alien enemy since 
the 2 1st of May, 1 86 1, be sequestrated by the Confederate 
States of America, and shall be held for the full indemnity 
of any citizen and resident of these Confederate States, 
or other person aiding said Confederate States in the 
prosecution of the present war, and for which he may 
suffer any loss or injury under the act of the United 
States to which this act is retaliatory, authorizing the 
seizure or confiscation of the property of citizens or 
residents of the Confederate States ; and the same shall 
be seized and disposed of as provided for in this act* 
Even this act, emanating from a spirit of revenge and 
retaliation, gives no authority, in any part of it, to private 
individuals to seize for their own use and benefit any 
property belonging to a Union man ; but expressly de- 
clares in the section just quoted, that 'the same shall be 
seized and disposed of as provided for in this act ; ' and 
the provisions referred to are quite as stringent and pre- 
cise as those in the United States * Confiscation Act,' 
heretofore quoted. 

" The reason why all governments are thus particular 
in pointing out the exact mode by which an enemy's 
property may be seized and appropriated, is plain enough, 
if one will but stop and consider it. Without such par- 
ticularity of procedure, an army going into an enemy's 
country would soon become a rabble or mob — war would 
soon become rapine — officers would soon lose all control 
of their men, and from thenceforth plundering, spoliation, 
and pillage would become the order of the day. Yea, 
more, it would have the effect to set an army to warring 
among themselves, for each officer and each soldier would 
want the * lion's share,' and it would only be a question 
of strength and endurance as to which should have it. 

" In the matter of the piano now in question, what 
more right had the doctor to it than the major ? what 



DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING PROPERTY. 233 

more right had the major to it than any one of the ten 
captains of the regiment? What more right had any 
captain to it than any one of the twenty lieutenants ? or 
what more right had any lieutenant to it than any one 
of the one thousand privates? If it were a question of 
strength only, the strongest man in the regiment would 
finally gain the prize, even though he had to walk over 
the dead body of every other man in the regiment to gain 
it. The court thinks that even the doctor, though he 
had his hands full of scalpels, or the colonel, though a 
sword were suspended from every hair of his head, would 
shrink from a contest of this character ! 

"Again, it should be borne in mind that, though prop- 
erty may have been abandoned temporarily by its owner, 
he may afterwards repent of such abandonment and re- 
claim possession. Bouvier, in his admirable ^Institutes of 
American Law,' says : ' Things that have been abandoned 
by the owner belong to the first occupant ; but if the 
owner should repent of having thrown away or aban- 
doned the thing, he may retake it before any one else, and 
he regains his former title. To entitle the finder to such 
chattels, the former owner must have wholly abandoned 
his title ; if, as in the case of a wreck, he has parted with 
the possession on the ground of necessity, or with the 
evident intention of resuming it, the property has never 
been abandoned.* 

"Again, he says: 'The right of acquiring personal 
chattels by finding, is limited to those found upon the 
surface of the earth. It does not extend to goods found 
derelict at sea, though abandoned without hope of re- 
covery, nor to goods or money found hidden in the earth, 
known by the name of treasure trove. In England such 
goods belong to the crown ; in this country the title to 
them perhaps has been seldom questioned in the hands 
of the finder, except by the real owner. No title by oc- 



234 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

cupancy can in this country be gained in waifs, or stolen 
goods thrown away or scattered by a thief in his flight, 
in order to effect his escape. In England they belong to 
the King ; here this prerogative has never been adopted 
by the government against the true owner, and never, 
perhaps, put in practice against the finder, though against 
him there would be a better reason for adopting it. Nor can 
any title be gained by occupancy of estrays, or cattle 
whose owner is unknown, or of wrecks, or such goods 
as after a shipwreck are cast upon the land by the sea, 
and left there, within some county, so as not to belong 
to the jurisdiction of the admiralty, but to the common 
law.' 

** Kent in his Commentaries lays down the same princi- 
ples, and both he and Bouvier cite a large number of de- 
cisions, both English and American cases, to prove the 
correctness of the doctrine. Indeed, the principle has 
been so universally adopted, that it would be difficult to 
find a court, in this or any other civilized country, that 
would not enforce it, in every case where the question of 
abandoned property was brought before them. 

" This is the first attempt, so far as the court knows, to 
take a piano from any one of the many abandoned houses 
in this city and vicinity ; but frequent attempts have been 
made to take smaller and less valuable articles ; and, in 
every instance, where it has come to the knowledge of 
the court, the person making the attempt has been required 
to return the article to the place where found. Nor can 
the court make any exception to the rule in this case. If, 
from the law and reasons stated by the court, the doctor 
and the colonel have become satisfied that they committed 
an error in the taking of the piano, and will, without de- 
lay, return it to the exact place where they found it, and 
promise to protect it from removal or damage hereafter, 
or so long, at least, as they continue to occupy the house 



DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING PROPERTY. 235 

for their headquarters, then no further steps need be taken 
in this case. If they are not so convinced, and dech'ne to 
make any such promise, then the duty of the court will 
be to order them both in arrest, and that the piano be 
taken in charge by the Provost-Marshal, to await the 
further orders of the court." 

The doctor immediately arose and said he "desired to 
extend his most hearty thanks to the court for the many 
courtesies which had been extended towards him, and to 
add, that the reasonings of the court had entirely satisfied 
him of his error; that he would, without one moment of 
unnecessary delay, have the piano returned to the house 
from whence taken ; and that from thenceforth, and so 
long as he remained in the army, he would use whatever 
influence he possessed towards preventing the taking of 
abandoned property for hidividual purpbses." 

The colonel then arose and said he was " reminded of 
the old maxim, that it * took a bolder man to confess an 
error than to face a cannon's mouth,' and while he laid no 
claim to boldness, he did claim to be able to do what he 
believed to be right ; and since he had heard the law and 
reason of the case, as laid down by the court, he was free 
to confess that he had all along been in error, and that 
the court was in the right." He had, he said, such " an 
utter detestation for disloyalty, that nothing, he thought, 
could be too great punishment for a rebel, and he had 
regarded the taking of their property — no matter when, 
how, or by whom — as a part of their just punishment ; 
but the reasoning of the court had made it entirely clear 
to his mind that, while this could be properly done by 
the government for the general good, it could not be 
properly done by individuals for their private gain." He, 
like the doctor, would "turn a short corner on this subject, 
and from thenceforth use whatever influence he possessed 
to discourage the taking of abandoned or captured prop- 



236 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

erty for private uses. So long as he retained his present 
headquarters, he would see that nothing was removed 
from the premises, and, so far as it was possible, he would 
have returned whatever had been taken away." 

Thus ended, pleasantly and satisfactorily, what, at one 
time, threatened to be a very ugly case. Had the doctor 
and colonel chosen to disregard the request of the court, 
and insisted upon their right to send the piano to the 
doctor's home, it would have brought on a direct conflict 
of authority, necessitated arrests, caused appeals to higher 
authorities, and created confusion generally; but their 
respect for the court was such as to overcome all these 
unhappy consequences. On the afternoon of the same 
day on which the case was heard, the colonel sent a team 
to the Provost-Marshal's office; the Marshal went with 
the driver to the office of the shipping-merchant and di- 
rected the delivery of the piano ; and before sundown of 
that day, the piano stood in the exact spot from which it 
had been taken a few days before. 

The triumph of reason over error and prejudice was 
complete. From thenceforth the long-mooted and often 
discussed question, as to how disloyalty affected the rights 
of property, was settled in and about Alexandria. There 
was no further attempt to appropriate abandoned property 
iox private uses. 




238 



CHAPTER XV. 

A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 
JUSTICE SHIFTING THE SCENES AND PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

ANOTHER class of questions which came before the 
provost-court at Alexandria excited at the time a 
large amount of interest ; was discussed to some extent 
by many of the ablest journals of the country; resulted 
in the payment of several old debts — amounting to many 
thousands of dollars — in an entirely new way ; and as no 
correct account thereof has ever yet appeared in historical 
form, we purpose in this chapter to relate the facts and 
incidents connected with one or two of the cases. 

Though the causes of the war had been brewing for 
many, many years ; though it was, indeed, as Mr. Seward 
had long before called it, an " irrepressible conflict," which 
could only be settled by the sacrifice of thousands of lives 
and millions of treasure ; though threats, louder, deeper, 
and more ominous, came year after year from Southern 
States, and that, too, from a class of men whom all ac- 
knowledged could act as well as threaten whenever they 
chose to put their threats into execution, — yet, when the 
storm did finally burst upon the country, it seemed to tens 
of thousands in the North like a clap of thunder from a 
clear sky, so wholly were they unprepared for it. Espe- 
cially was this true among merchants, and still more es- 
pecially was it true with that class of merchants who, for 
many years previously, had been selling goods to Southern 
merchants, and buying from them cotton, sugar, rice, and 
tobacco. These merchants had, of course, a great many 

239 



240 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

pleasant personal acquaintances throughout the South; 
they had often been at their customers* stores, dined with 
their families, been upon their plantations, visited their 
sugar-mills, witnessed the workings of their cotton-gins, 
admired the wonderful power of their cotton-presses, 
heard their negroes sing while picking the cotton, listened 
in raptures to the peculiar melodies of the negroes as they 
stripped the tobacco leaf or rolled it into fragrant cigars, 
and though, even at such times and in such places, they 
had frequently heard Southern merchants and Southern 
planters complain of what they called *' Northern inter- 
ference with slavery " and '* Northern oppression because 
of tariffs," etc., etc., yet it had never occurred to them as 
possible that the time would come when these same men 
would try to break loose from the North and set up for 
themselves a separate confederacy. 

Such had been the confidences between Northern and 
Southern merchants, that, for years previous to the war, 
the former had been in the habit of selling the latter 
goods on a whole year's credit. This was necessitated, 
in part, from the fact that planters had got behind in their 
finances, and were compelled to pledge their next year's 
crops for their present year's supplies ; but it was owing 
much more to the fact that confidence, very great confi- 
dence, had become established between the Northern and 
the Southern merchant. This confidence, and consequent 
long credit, resulted in the fact that, when the war actually 
commenced, the merchants and planters of the South 
owed the merchants and cotton factors of the North the 
enormous sum of two hundred millions of dollars. 

Some part of this debt would probably have been paid 
had the Southern merchant and planter been left to his 
own free choice ; but the governmental and military au- 
thorities of the South, with a view to cripple the North 
and strengthen themselves, had a law passed so early in 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 24I 

the contest as May 2ist, 1861, prohibiting all debtors 
owing money to Northern creditors from paying them, 
and requiring the payment of the amount into the Con- 
federate treasury, either in specie or treasury notes, for 
which they were to receive a certificate of the payment 
bearing interest and redeemable at the close of the war. 
How much of the sum due the North was ever paid into 
the Confederate treasury is not known, but probably a 
very small proportion of the whole amount. The Govern- 
ment having virtually repudiated the claim towards the 
one to whom the debt was actually due, it was not unnat- 
ural that the merchant should repudiate it towards the 
Government, and when asked the question how much he 
owed the merchants of New York, Philadelphia, or Bos- 
ton, his answer was, ** Nothing at all ; " nor was the cred- 
itor or any one else present to dispute his answer. In 
this way at least one hundred and ninety of the two hun- 
dred millions due the North escaped payment altogether, 
while even the ten millions which we suppose to have 
been paid into the Confederate treasury were absorbed 
by English capitalists and others like the mist of a sum- 
mer morning. 

Among the Southern merchants who owed consider- 
able amounts to merchants and manufacturers of the 
North were those of Alexandria. What may have been 
the gross amount of their indebtedness to the North is 
not definitely known, but certainly tens, if not hundreds, 
of thousands of dollars. 

Soon after the provost-court had been established in 
Alexandria, manufacturers and merchants began to come 
'there to look after debts due them from the merchants 
of that city. Such as had not fled made such response 
las they could — paying in money if they had it and de- 
I sired to continue in business, or returning to their cred- 

Iitors so much of their remaining stock as would satisfy 
.. 



242 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

their claims. Only in one instance, where the debtor 
remained in Alexandria, was the creditor obliged to call 
upon the Provost-Judge for assistance. In that case the 
debtor pleaded, as an excuse for non-payment, the act of 
the Confederate Congress of May 2 1st, heretofore spoken 
of. He wanted, he said, to pay — '* of course he wanted 
to pay ; but, being a Southern man, and with that act 
staring him in the face, he did not see how he could." 
The creditor called upon Judge Freese and acquainted 
him with the facts as above stated. The Judge sent for 
the debtor to meet the creditor at his private office. He 
there told the debtor that " the excuse he offered for non- 
payment was no excuse at all — indeed, worse ; for, besides 
being a mere subterfuge, it was a virtual acknowledgment 
of his own disloyalty ; that it mattered not at all what 
laws the Confederate Congress had passed or might pass, 
they could not be recognized by the citizens of Alexan- 
dria so long as it remained in possession of the Union 
troops, and that was likely to be so long as the war con- 
tinued; and that if he had the means to pay his creditor, 
the sooner he did it the better ! " Within an hour the debt 
was paid, and it was the last of that kind of cases in 
which the Judge had to interfere, as within twenty-four 
hours the facts of this case were known to every merchant 
of Alexandria. 

But there was another class of cases which came thick 
and fast, and for awhile gave the court a vast amount of 
trouble. To relate the origin, the incidents, and the re- 
sults of a few of these will be the object of this chapter. 
The first was as follows : 

Mr. S. was an old resident of Alexandria, and for 
several years before the war had been keeping an agri- 
cultural and hardware store in that city. He was regarded 
by his neighbors as a highly honorable merchant, and^ 
being a man of considerable means, had always met his 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 245 

payments promptly. He was a Virginian by birth, and 
when the contest began between the North and the South, 
promptly took sides with the South. Indeed, he had ad- 
vocated secession so strongly and so loudly that he feared 
he would be© arrested for disloyalty if he remained in 
Alexandria, so, when the Union troops were about coming 
in and the Confederate troops about going out, he retired 
with them. He did this, however, so unexpectedly, and 
in so much of a hurry, that he had no time to make a 
formal sale and transfer of his stock of goods to any one ; 
but, on the morning that he left, he handed the key of 
his store to a neighbor and told him to look after his 
affairs until he returned, or until he could make some 
other arrangement. The neighbor did as requested, kept 
the store open, sold whatever he could for ready cash, 
and transmitted the money to Mr. S. whenever he had op- 
portunity. 

Thus matters were going on when a Philadelphia mer- 
chant, to whom Mr. S. was indebted, went to Alexandria 
to look after his claim. He had written several letters, 
addressed to Mr. S., Alexandria, Va., but could get no 
reply, and began to suspect that he might have left the 
city, though he had no positive information to that effect 
until he reached there. He inquired of the man whom 
he found in the store of the whereabouts of Mr. S., and 
was told that he had left, on the coming in of the Union 
troops ; but where he had gone, or exactly where he then 
was, the man in the store pretended not to know. The 
Philadelphian said he had a claim, past due, of several 
hundred dollars, against Mr. S., and would like to have it 
settled in some way. The agent replied that he had not 
been authorized by Mr. S. to pay any debts, and, besides 
that, the Confederate Congress had passed a law requiring 
lall men who owed debts to Northern merchants to pay 
the amount into the Confederate treasury, and it was 



244 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION.* 

possible that Mr. S. might have already paid off the 
claim by paying it into the Southern treasury. 

The Philadelphian replied that he did not recognize any 
such payment as cancelling his claim ; and, as he ob- 
served some of the very goods he had sold Mr. S. then 
in the store-room, he thought the agent ought to be will- 
ing to return him those goods, which he would take in 
payment at cost price, and then to pay him the balance 
in money. The agent said he could not, for one moment, 
entertain any such proposition. That, the goods having 
been placed in his care by Mr. S. when he left, he re- 
garded himself as the owner of them, and could not think 
of returning any part of them to Mr. S.'s creditors, nor 
of disposing of them in any other way, except for cash 
in hand. The Philadelphian tried to convince the agent 
of the justice and reasonableness of the proposition he 
had made, and finally offered to accept of goods, at cost 
price, for the whole of his claim ; but the longer he 
reasoned, the more obstinate grew the agent, until at last 
the agent said he could not, and would not, do anything 
about it ; that the debt was not his own anyhow ; that it 
possibly had been paid into the Confederate treasury, and, 
if so, was legally paid ; and that it was only a waste of 
time and breath to talk to him any more about it. 

The Philadelphian, having read something in the news- 
papers about Judge Freese's " Bayonet Court," concluded 
to seek the Judge and see if there was not some way by 
which his claim might be enforced. Going to his office, 
he told the Judge the whole case, and begged that he 
would aid him in some way to secure his claim. 

The Judge replied that the provost-court had been 
established only with a view of preserving the peace of 
the city, and the personal and property rights of indi- 
viduals, and not with any view whatever of collecting 
claims; that if its jurisdiction was enlarged to include 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 245 

civil as well as criminal cases, the business might prove 
larger than any one court could do, and thereby defeat 
wholly, or in part, its original intention ; that whatever 
he could do by moral suasion to induce Mr. S.'s agent to 
pay his claim, he would most cheerfully do, but as to 
opening the court for the hearing and adjudication of 
such cases, it was more than he could at present consent 
to do. He would, he added, send for Mr. S.'s agent and 
see what, if anything, could be done. He accordingly 
sent an orderly to request the agent to come to the head- 
quarters immediately. 

When the agent made his appearance, the Judge told 
him why he had been sent for, and strongly urged him to 
make some equitable arrangement whereby to settle the 
claim of the Philadelphia merchant. The agent made 
about the same reply to the Judge that he had made to 
the Philadelphian, to all of which the Judge listened at- 
tentively without uttering a word. When he had entirely 
finished, the Judge said he would like to ask him a few 
questions to which he would like direct answers. To 
this the agent assented. 

" First, then," said the Judge, " did Mr. S., before leav- 
ing, execute to you a bill of sale, or any other paper, by 
which to make the goods yours ? " 

*' No," replied the agent, " he did not ; but when about 
to leave he handed me the key of his store, and told me 
to take care of the goods until his return, or until he 
might make some other arrangement." 

"Then," said the Judge, "the goods are no more 
legally yours than they are mine, and you are simply act- 
ing as guard over them. Have you not been selling 
some of the goods ? " 

" Yes," replied the agent ; " I understood the care to 
include the right to sell, and have accordingly sold of the 
goods whenever I had opportunity." 

21* 



246 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

" What have you done with the money received from 
sales ? " said the Judge. 

The agent became confused, hesitated, stammered, and 
finally got out that he had "sent soQie of it to Mr. S., and 
still had some of it." 

"And it is your intention, I suppose," said the Judge, 
*' to send it all to him so soon as you shall have sold all 
the goods ? " 

** Certainly, certainly," said the agent ; " it would all 
belong to him." 

" Then you think that no part of it would belong to 
his creditors; but that all should go to him?" said the 
Judge. 

" Well, yes, about so," said the agent ; " for if he has 
paid his debts once into the Confederate treasury, as I 
suppose he has or will, it would seem unreasonable that 
he should pay them again to such Northern merchants 
as he may happen to owe." 

"Are you not aware," said the Judge, " that any law 
passed by the Confederate Congress is a nullity in Alex- 
andria, and can have no possible effect on the question of 
contracts?" 

" Well, yes, no, yes ; but Alexandria, you know, is in 
Virginia, and Mr. S., you know, is at Richmond." 

'^Ah! at Richmond, is he? Only a little while ago 
you told this creditor that you did not know where he 
was, and I understood you to say the same in your story 
to me, and now, all at once, when you seek to screen him 
from justice and from Northern laws, you recollect that 
he is at Richmond. Very well, sir, then to the Richmond 
authorities he must look for protection, while this North- 
ern merchant has no protection save through our pro- 
vost-court, and though I told him, previous to your com- 
ing here, that the court could not take up such cases, yet 
now that I have heard your story, and see that by allow- 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 24/ 

ing you to retain and sell, the goods will virtually be to 
give ' aid and comfort to the enemy,' while to interfere in 
behalf of this merchant will be to weaken the enemy, by 
cutting off some of his resources, besides doing an act of 
simple justice— in view, I say, of all these facts, I am 
now resolved to take up this case, and the first step in 
the case will be for the court to take possession of the 
store-room and all of its contents until the case can be 
heard and adjudicated. You will at once hand the key 
of the store-room, after closing it carefully, to the Provost- 
Marshal. He will place a guard over the premises to see 
that nothing is taken away or disturbed until the case is 
heard and decided, and to-morrow morning, at ten 
o'clock, you will be at the court with any books, 
papers, or witnesses you may have, when the case will 
be heard." 

Had a bombshell fallen and burst at the feet of the 
agent, he could not have been more surprised. For some 
moments he seemed so dumbfounded that he could not, 
or did not, utter a word. Then, slowly arising to his feet, 
he was about to leave, when the Judge told him to again 
be seated, to await the coming of the Provost-Marshal, 
for whom he had sent. 

When the Marshal made his appearance, the Judge 
directed him to accompany the agent to the store-room, 
to see that every window and every door was securely 
closed and fastened, to then place a guard both at the 
front and at the rear of the premises, and to see that they 
were regularly relieved and replaced, the same as other 
guards of the city, until further orders from the court, 
and meanwhile to retain the key of the store-room in his 
own possession, and see that nothing whatever was re- 
moved from the premises. 

The agent then left with the Marshal, and all was done 
precisely as directed. That the Philadelphia merchant 



248 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

was pleased with the turn things had taken need hardly 
be added. 

Next day, at ten o'clock, the Philadelphia merchant, the 
Hgent, and about a dozen friends of the agent, including 
^he secession lawyer heretofore spoken of, appeared at the 
court-room. When all the police cases had been disposed 
of, the court said it was now ready to hear the civil case, 
in which, upon the court record, Mr. G., of Philadelphia, 
was named as plaintiff, and Mr. T., of Alexandria, as agent 
for Mr. S., was named as defendant. 

Mr. G. arose, and said that he had no attorney to rep- 
resent him in this case, and that he was himself wholly 
unacquainted with court proceedings, and did not know 
even how to take the first step. He begged to inquire 
of the court what was needed to be done upon his part ? 

The Judge replied that the first thing required of him 
was to prove his claim against Mr. S., beyond any rea- 
sonable doubt. To do this he must produce his original 
books of entry, and prove by the one who sold the goods, 
or by some one who knows of their delivery, that the 
goods charged in the original entry were actually sold 
and delivered to Mr S., and then you or some one else 
must, under oath or affirmation, satisfy the court that 
they have never been paid for. 

Mr. G. replied that all this could be done if a few days* 
time could be given him; that he had not brought his 
account-books with him, nor was the clerk who sold the 
goods present. He could himself at once make affidavit 
as to the correctness of the account, and to the fact that 
it had never been paid, but beyond this he could not go 
until he could send to Philadelphia for his books and 
clerk; that he could have his books and clerk present 
if the court would adjourn the case for two days. 

The court said that, under the circumstances, it would 
be entirely proper to grant the adjournment asked for by 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 249 

the plaintiff; but, to justify the Marshal in longer retain- 
ing the goods, the court would require Mr. G. to make a 
written state-of-demand against Mr. S., setting forth the 
nature and amount of his claim, and the fact that the 
claim had never been paid in any way, and was now 
justly due and owing to him. To this he must set his 
name, and then make affidavit that the statement is true. 
Upon this, 2i^ prima facie evidence of the claim, the court 
will direct the Marshal to continue possession of the 
goods until the case can be heard. The court asked the 
defendant if he had any objection to an adjournment, or 
to the course of procedure proposed, to which he an- 
swered that he had not; whereupon the court adjourned 
the case for two days. 

Two days after, the parties again appeared before the 
court. The plaintiff now produced his original books of 
entry, and both he and his clerk swore that they were 
such. The clerk swore that he had sold to, and for- 
warded to, Mr. S. every article charged upon the books. 
Mr. G. swore that he had seen many of the articles in Mr. 
S.'s store-room on the day he first arrived in Alexandria ; 
that the account was due and overdue ; and that no part 
thereof had been paid. 

Mr. T. was then called upon by the court to make any 
defence he thought proper. He replied that he had no 
defence to make, further than the Judge already knew, 
that every fact and every argument within his reach had 
been stated and made at the interview had at the head- 
quarters. He added, that the attorney which Mr. S. had 
been in the habit of employing before he left Alexandria 
was in the court-room, and that he had tried to induce 
him to take charge of and conduct the case, but this he 
had declined to do, as he was not prepared to take the 
oath of allegiance to the United States government, re- 
quired by the court from all attorneys who would prac- 



250 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

tise in it. He had not had opportunity to confer with 
Mr. S., by letter or otherwise, since these proceedings 
commenced, nor did he know that he should have for a 
long time to come, else he might ask for an adjournment 
of the case until he could hear from him. Under all the 
circumstances he saw no other way than to submit to the 
judgment of the court, whatever it might be. 

All parties having rested, Judge Freese said he " would 
have much preferred not to take up this class of cases, 
but under all the circumstances it was a responsibility he 
could not avoid. The plaintiff came to this city seeking 
his debtor and the recovery of a just claim. Upon in- 
quiry he learns that his debtor has fled and is now within 
the enemy's lines, yea, even under the very wings and 
protection of the authorities at Richmond. He cannot 
pursue him thither, nor can he issue, or have issued, any 
process by which to compel his return. The goods he 
sold him, however, with a large amount of other goods, 
he finds in Alexandria, in possession of a man who claims 
to be Mr. S.'s agent for the care and sale of his goods, but 
not his agent for the payment of his debts. Indeed, this 
so-called agent — who, in a legal sense, is no agent at all, 
and has no more claim upon the goods than any other 
gentleman in this court-room — even goes so far as to say 
that ' Mr. S. may not owe this plaintiff anything now, 
however justly he may have owed him a few months ago, 
for the reason that the Confederate Congress has since 
then passed a law sequestrating all debts due from the 
South to the North ; ' in reply to which the court told 
him, and may now repeat for the benefit of this whole 
community, that it matters not what laws may or may 
not be passed by the Confederate Congress, they can in 
no way affect the people of this city so long as it remains 
in charge of Union troops, and that is likely to be so long 
as the war continues. Had there been any other tribunal 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 251 

in this city to which this class of cases could have been 
referred, this court would not have taken them up ; but, 
since the State and county courts of Alexandria had vir- 
tually run away when the people ran away, the simple 
question to decide was, whether this court should take up 
this class of cases, in addition to such as it had already 
taken up, or allow Mr. G., and others like him, to be 
without any remedy whatever ? Viewed from this stand- 
point, it became a duty, a responsibility, and one which 
the court could not avoid, without inflicting great injury 
upon others and consequent blame upon itself 

" With regard to the facts in the present case there is 
not a shadow of doubt in the mind of the court, nor is it 
at all probable that Mr. S. would deny any one of them, 
if here himself He unquestionably owes this debt to 
Mr. G. ; the goods in the store-room which he lately 
occupied unquestionably belong to Mr. S. ; Mr. T. has 
no claim upon them whatever, not even the claim of an 
agent or clerk, in d, legal sense; he has assumed authority 
so far as it suited his own convenience, but declines to 
assume it when it does not suit his convenience or his 
secession notions ; to sell the goods, pocket the money, 
and transmit all or part of it to Richmond was, to his 
mind, all right — to pay Mr. S.'s creditors with the money, 
or with a portion of the goods, was, to his mind, all 
wrong. In all this the court differs with him entirely, 
and holds that so much of the goods as have not been 
paid for belong to his creditors rather than to him, and 
that the agent, so soon as he became satisfied of the cor- 
rectness of the claim, should not have hesitated a moment 
about returning to Mr. G. so much of his goods as re- 
mained in store, and paid him the balance in money or 
in other goods. It is a principle of law that a consider- 
ation of some kind must pass from buyer to seller before 
legal possession can be claimed by the buyer. Hence 



252 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

you see in contracts the words, * For and in consideration 
of one dollar, the receipt of which is hereby acknowl- 
edged,' etc. ; whereas no dollar, or any other sum, has 
passed between the parties, and yet these words or their 
equivalent are necessary in order to make the contract 
legal. It may be answered that the taking of a note, or 
a consent to a charge upon books of regular entry, are 
regarded as a * consideration ' in the mercantile world, 
and this may be so ; but certainly, if the purchaser after- 
wards repudiates his note or book account, or if the gov- 
ernment under which he has placed himself repudiates 
the debt for him, then there is not, nor has there been, 
any * consideration,' and the seller, in law as well as in 
equity, has a right to the goods. 

"Again: in the eye of the law, Mr. S. would be re- 
garded as an absconded debtor, and had there been a 
court of common pleas in this city, Mr. G. could have 
had an attachment issued, and the goods of Mr. S. seized 
and held by virtue of that attachment. True, Mr. S. has 
not left the State — and in most of the States the law re- 
quires that the party shall have left the State before an 
attachment can issue — but, under the present state of 
things, Mr. S. has as virtually left the State, or at least 
the jurisdiction of a court in Alexandria, as though he 
had gone to England. I certainly should have taken 
this view of the case had I been presiding in a common 
pleas court, and this case been brought before me, and I 
doubt not any other judge would have done the same. 
In law, as in other things, 'circumstances alter cases,' 
and it is the duty of a court always to consider circum- 
stances, and to give such construction to law as will best 
promote the ends of justice. 

" Nor does this principle at all conflict with another, so 
often and so strongly insisted upon by this court, namely, 
that abandoned property shall not be taken for private 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 253 

gain. Had any party, having no just claim upon Mr S., 
attempted to take for his own use and profit any of the 
goods left by Mr. S. in that store-room, this court, if in- 
formed of the attempt, would have used all its power to 
prevent such taking, and, if already taken, the court 
would have made the party return the goods to the 
place from whence taken. But the case in hand is al- 
together different. Here the party has a claim, a just 
claim, indeed an implied, if not a legal ownership in the 
goods which he seeks to take, and, instead of preventing, 
it becomes the duty of the court to assist in the transfer. 
" But, again, it may be said by some — and is probably 
thought, if not said, by this defendant and his secession 
friends — that, as this is a military court, it has not, and 
should not presume to have, any jurisdiction in civil mat- 
ters, or matters touching the transfer of property, real or 
personal. As heretofore stated, this court surely would 
not have assumed any such jurisdiction, had there been 
a circuit, district, common pleas, or chancery court in 
this city, to which cases of this kind could have been re- 
ferred ; but, as all present well know, there has been no 
such court here since the Confederate troops left, and with 
them all the officers of State and county courts. Hence, 
as before stated, it was this court or nothing. But there 
is a view, and a very strong view, of the case, in which it 
would become not only the right, but the duty, of this 
court, or of any military court, to interfere in cases of 
this kind, namely, where it became known that property, 
or the proceeds from sales of property, was being surrep- 
titiously transferred from the hands of friends to the hands 
of enemies. The third section of the third article of the 
Constitution of the United States defines treason to be 
the * levying of war against the United States, or in ad- 
hering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort! 
Now, if the transfer of goods, or the transfer of money 
33 



254 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

from the sale of goods, gives to an enemy * aid and com- 
lort,* then, surely, it is the business of a military court 
to stop it, and the evidence in this case shows this to 
have been done. The agent admits that he has sold the 
goods for cash in hand whenever he had opportunity, 
and that, as he has had opportunity, he has transmitted 
the money to Mr. S. ; nor does he, or any other of his 
friends, pretend to deny that Mr. S. is an avowed enemy 
to the government which this court, in part, represents. 

" So suddenly and so unexpectedly has this new class 
of cases come upon the court, that no time has been had 
to consult with the Attorney-General or other legal gen- 
tlemen, or even to consult legal authorities with regard to 
the matter ; but the court has no doubt that the principles 
laid down in every law text-book, including Blackstone, 
Kent, Parsons, Greenleaf, Chitty, Cockburn, Stephen, and 
others, will fully justify every position thus far taken by 
this court, even though there be not a single precedent to 
cite. While this court would much prefer to follow than 
to make precedents, yet it has no hesitancy in making 
them when the circumstances of a case call for, or justify, 
such action. At the earliest possible moment the court 
will draw up and promulgate a course of proceedings in 
cases of this character. Until then the form of proceed- 
ings and the manner of adjudication will have to depend 
altogether upon the facts in each particular case. 

" The judgment of the court in this case is, that the 
plaintiff choose one man, the defendant another, and the 
two, a third, or, if there be any disagreement about the 
choice of a third man, that the Provost-Marshal act as 
such third man. That the three thus selected constitute 
a commission, authorized and directed by this court to 
set apart, of the goods left by Mr. S., so much as will pay 
in full, at a fair valuation, the claim due from Mr. S. to 
Mr. G.; that this commission shall fix the price of every 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 25$ 

article transferred to Mr. G., and, where there is a dis- 
agreement as to value between the two, the judgment of 
the third shall be final ; that the gross amount of goods 
to be transferred shall include the amount of Mr. G.'s claim, 
the estimated cost of transportation from this city to Phil- 
adelphia, and five dollars to each of the commissioners 
for the services they will render ; that the commissioners 
make a written report to this court so soon as the goods 
have been selected and set apart ; but that the goods be 
not taken from the store-room, until the report of the 
commissioners be approved by this court, and an order 
for their shipment obtained. The Provost-Marshal will 
see to the execution of this order in all its parts." 

The court then adjourned. On the afternoon of the 
same day each party chose their man, and the Provost- 
Marshal consented to act as the third. Next morning 
the three went to the store-room, accompanied by Mr. G. 
and Mr. T., and before noon had a sufficient amount of 
goods selected and set apart to cover Mr. G.'s claim. In 
the afternoon they presented their written report to the 
Provost- Judge ; he examined and approved it, and at once 
gave an order for the delivery and shipment of the goods. 
Next day they were shipped, and probably a better pleased 
man never left Alexandria than Mr. G. 

The only other case of this character to which we can 
give place, occurred between a large wholesale dry-goods 
firm of New York and one of the largest retail dry-goods 
houses in Alexandria, and differed from the first case only 
in the fact that here the store was securely locked up, and 
had been ever since the owners left. There was no agent 
in this case left to sell or otherwise dispose of the goods, 
though it came out, in the course of the evidence, that 
the clerk, with whom the keys had been left, had fre- 
quently been seen to take large packages of goods from 



2S6 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the Store, and he acknowledged that he had sent some 
across the lines to his former employers. 

In this case, as in the one related, the New York mer- 
chant went to Alexandria to look after his customers, and 
found them gone. After considerable inquiry, he found 
the clerk who had the keys, but the clerk said he had no 
authority from the owners to do anything, and would not 
so much as open the store to allow the creditor to look 
in. The merchant then called upon Judge Freese and 
told him the facts of the case. The Judge informed him 
that the court now had a regular course of procedure in 
these cases, and if he chose to pursue that course he 
could bring his case before the court. The merchant in- 
quired what was the procedure? The Judge informed 
him that the first step was, for the party having a claim 
to make an affidavit as to its amount and its correctness 
— the same as in cases of attachment in ordinary courts ; 
that thereupon the court issued an order, having the 
force of an attachment, to the Provost-Marshal, to take 
charge of the goods of the defendant until such time as 
the case could be heard — usually in one week from the 
day the attachment issued ; that the plaintiff must then 
produce his original books of entry, or note, or other 
evidence of debt, and satisfy the court, beyond any pos- 
sible doubt, that the debt is due and unpaid; that when 
this had been done — the defendant meanwhile, or any one 
for him, having, of course, full opportunity to make any 
defence within his power, if any he had to make — the 
court appoints three wholly disinterested persons to fix 
the value and set apart so much of the defendant's goods 
as would satisfy the claim of the plaintiff, with cost of 
transportation to a market, and costs of proceedings ; that 
the three commissioners must then make report, with 
schedule of goods set apart, to the court ; that the court 
carefully examines said report, and if found correct in all 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 25/ 

particulars, then issues an order to Provost- Marshal to de- 
liver to plaintiff the goods so set apart; upon receipt of 
which the plaintiff executes receipt to Provost-Marshal for 
the goods, as in full liquidation of his claim against the 
defendant. The proceedings, the Judge said, were so 
plain that a child could understand them, and so open 
and straightforward, from first to last, that a mistake was 
scarcely possible. 

The merchant expressed his delight at the mode of 
procedure, as detailed by the Judge, and said he was ready 
to make the preliminary affidavit at once, and in a week 
would return to Alexandria with his books and witnesses 
to substantiate his claim. The Judge drew the necessary 
affidavit ; the merchant subscribed and swore thereto ; the 
Provost-Marshal was sent for ; the order for attaching the 
goods put into his hands; and within one hour from the 
time when the New York merchant entered the Judge's 
office, guards stood in front and at the rear of the build- 
ing, to see that no goods were taken from the store-room. 
The young man who had the keys was then sent for, and 
told to write to his employers, and inform any friends of 
his employers who might still be in Alexandria, of just 
what had been done thus far, and that the court had ap- 
pointed one week from that day to hear the case. If they, 
or any one for them, had any defence to make, they 
should be at the court-room at ten o'clock of that day 
and should then be heard. He thanked the Judge for his 
courtesy in sending for him, and for the timely notice 
given for defence, and was about to retire, when the Judge 
told him that he might hand the keys over to the Provost- 
Marshal until the case had been disposed of This he at 
first refused to do, but a few words from the Judge satis- 
fied him that wisdom was the better part of valor, when 
he took the keys from his pocket and handed them to 
the Marshal. 

22* R 



258 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

In one week the trial came on. The New York mer- 
chant, on behalf of his firm, appeared with his books and 
with the clerk who had sold and delivered the goods. 
The defendants were not present, but were represented 
by their clerk, by the secession lawyer of the city, here- 
tofore spoken of, and by about a dozen other gentlemen, 
who were friends, if not relatives, of the absconded 
debtors. The plaintiff proved that the books before 
the court were the original books of entry of the firm of 
which he was a member. By his clerk he proved the 
sale and delivery of the goods, item by item, as charged 
upon the books. By himself he proved that the debt was 
now due, and that no part of it had ever been paid. The 
court then asked if there was any person present to make 
a defence in this case, if so, they would now be heard. 
The clerk then arose and said he "was instructed by 
the attorney of the firm to say, that while they had no 
formal defence to make in this case, yet they desired to 
enter their protest against the jurisdiction of this court, 
and to reserve to and for themselves whatever rights they 
might have under the laws of Virginia." He added, 
that he himself ** was aware that the firm, of which he 
was formerly a clerk, had purchased goods of the New 
York firm represented in this case, and had no doubt that 
the amount they claimed was due them ; but that it would 
have been wiser and more honorable in them to have 
waited until the war was over, when they would un- 
doubtedly have been paid dollar for dollar." The court 
inquired if there was any other gentleman present who 
desired to offer any evidence, or say anything by way of 
defence in this case. There was no response. 

The court then proceeded to give an opinion in the 
case, which occupied nearly an hour, and was listened to 
with almost breathless silence by the large audience pres- 
ent. In amount claimed, and in point of high standing, 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 259 

both as to the plaintiffs and defendants, it was the most 
important case of the kind yet brought before the court, 
and for the information of the general public, no less than 
for the parties immediately interested, the Judge thought 
it well to state the principles upon which the court acted, 
and their applicability to the case in hand. A reporter 
present wrote out the opinion, which, by request of the 
New York merchant, was published soon after in the 
New York Times, occupying over two columns of closely 
printed matter. As most of the principles enunciated in 
this opinion were the same as stated in the first case 
heretofore given, it is not necessary to repeat them here. 
In reply to the clerk's request " to reserve to and for 
themselves whatever rights they might have under the 
laws of Virginia," and to the opinion expressed by him 
that " the New York firm would have acted wiser and 
more honorable to have waited for their claim until the 
war was over," the court said : 

" Of course, in this, as in every other case, the parties 
can and do reserve for themselves whatever rights they 
possess under the laws of Virginia, of which this city 
forms a part, and, if the rebellion succeeds, the parties 
reserving these rights will undoubtedly make the best 
use of them possible ; but meanwhile the claimants; so 
far as this court can effect it, shall have a return of their 
own goods, or of others equal in value to their claim, 
and after that, if the debtors, through sequestration laws 
made by the Confederate Congress, or any laws now 
made or hereafter to be made by Virginia, can get the 
goods back or damages by way of reclamation, this court 
at least will have done its duty. With regard to the 
opinion expressed by the young gentleman, the court 
begs to differ with him. By his own confession por- 
tions of the goods have already been sent across the 
lines, and to that extent have contributed to the 'aid 



26o SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

and comfort ' of the enemies of this government, and had 
there been no claimants, no interference, there is no man- 
ner of doubt that every article in the store would, sooner 
or later, have gone the same way ; and as to the debtors 
paying the claim after the war is over, if we may judge 
by what they and their chosen government have already 
done, there is no more probability of it than for the 
waters of Niagara Falls to run backwards. As the leap 
of the waters in that case is irrevocable, so is the leap 
from the fair haven of loyalty to the deep, dark chasm of 
disloyalty — once taken, there can be no hope of return." 

One other matter the court explained in this case, which 
was not explained in the first, namely, why the goods 
were not sold at public sale, and the money, instead of the 
goods, turned over to claimants. He said : " It will be 
observed that by the rules of procedure adopted in these 
cases, the court is quite as careful to protect the interests 
of debtors as of claimants. In ordinary actions for debt, 
in courts of common pleas, the goods, after being attached 
or levied upon, are put up at public sale and sold to the 
highest bidder, and the money received at such sales paid 
to claimants. In such cases it often happens that, even 
in a market, goods do not bring one-half and sometimes 
not one-fourth their real value, and the defendant of 
course has to suffer the loss. If the goods seized here 
were thus exposed to public sale, at this time, when two- 
thirds of its ordinary inhabitants have fled from the city, 
and when there is little or no market for anything outside 
of army stores, they would not bring one-fourth their 
cost; whereas the same goods taken to a market, will 
sell for about their original cost. Hence the rule in the 
proceedings whereby goods are assessed by three disin- 
terested persons, and turned over to the claimants at the 
prices fixed by the commissioners. And the court begs 
to add — though not boastfully, since it only performs a 



A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. 26l 

duty in so doing — that, because of the absence of the 
defendants, doubly the care is taken that the full market 
value is fixed to each article turned over to the creditor ; 
and that in every case the court carefully supervises the 
schedules, to see that no mistakes have been made. 

*' If the goods were sold at a public sale, the court 
could in no way control the price, and a debtor's goods 
might be sold for one-half or one-fourth of their real 
value; but by this procedure the debtor is sure to receive 
about the fair value of the goods. The fact that the 
debtor is absent (although a rebel to the government 
which this court in part represents) makes us all the 
more careful to see that he shall have exact justice ; for, 
in all these cases, this court recognizes the principles so 
ably stated by Bouvier, by Blackburn, and by others who 
have written on the law of sales — i. That *to constitute a 
sale, there must be a price, which is the consideration 
given for the purchase of a thing.* 2. That 'the price must 
be serious, or such a one as the seller intends to require 
to be paid to him. As to the quantum of the price, that 
is altogether immaterial, unless there has been fraud in 
the transaction.' 3. That ' the price must be certain and 
determined, but upon the maxim id cerium est quod reddi 
certiim potest, a sale may be valid, although it is agreed that 
the price of the thing sold shall be determined by a third 
person' 4. That 'the price must consist in a sum of 
money which the buyer agrees to pay to the seller; for, 
if it be paid in any other way, the contract is not a sale, 
but an exchange or barter. But it is only requisite that 
the agreement should be for a payment in money ; in the 
sequel it may be changed, and the creditor may take goods 
in payment, and the contract will still be a sale. It is not 
requisite that the money should be paid down, either at 
the time of the sale or the delivery of the goods ; it may 
be upon a credit ^ or payable at a future time.* And, 5. That 



262 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

*the consent of the contracting parties must be obtained; 
by which consent is meant an agreement to something 
proposed. It does not consist simply in a vague will to 
sell or to pay ; it must bear on all the conditions which 
may be suggested by the circumstances of the case^ or 
imagined by the caprice of the contracting parties.' " 

In this case, as in others, the court fixed upon the 
amount due the claimants, appointed three commissioners 
to select and assess values to goods to the amount of 
claim, supervised the report and schedule made, gave 
order to the Provost-Marshal to deliver the goods; all 
of which was done, and the New York merchant 
returned to his home, with the full conviction that in 
one city at least, and in one court at least, justice was 
♦administered without partiality, and without fear or favor 
of, or to, any one. 

Not only was the Judge's decision in this case pub- 
lished, as heretofore stated, in the New York journals, 
but the newspapers all over the country had more or less 
to say about it editorially — some favorable and some un- 
favorable — the particulars of which and the results of 
which will be more fully stated in the next chapter. 




264 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LEGAL TECHNICALITIES IN CONFLICT WITH COMMON 

SENSE. 

ANOTHER ACT IN THE DRAMA. — PRIDE ON THE ONE SIDE 
AND JUSTICE ON THE OTHER PROMPTING THE ACTORS. 

THERE is nothing so uncommon as common sense ; 
nor is there anything more distasteful than common 
sense to such as pride themselves on technical knowledge. 
The doctor who would rather kill by rule than cure by 
reason, if the reason chanced to come from a sick-nurse, 
or from an old woman ; and the lawyer who would rather 
lose a case by observing technicalities and following prec- 
edents, than gain it by exercising plain common sense, 
are by no means so rare as some suppose. They are to 
be found in all the walks of life, high as well as low, and 
whenever or wherever found, should be carefully noted, 
especially by the historian, in order to warn others from 
falling into a like error. 

From the very day the provost-court opened in Alex- 
andria, the secessionists of that city, and all whom they 
could influence in Washington and elsewhere, commenced 
to oppose it — not so much openly as secretly. This was 
especially true of the only lawyer remaining there, and 
his reasons for opposition were of a threefold character. 
First, he saw it might, and probably would, be used in the 
interests of the Union cause and in the cause of freedom, 
and thus interfere with the plans of secessionists and of 
slave-owners ; secondly, he opposed it because the court 
refused to admit him, or any other lawyer, to practise in 
23 265 



266 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

it, unless they would first take the oath of allegiance to 
the United States government ; and thirdly, because the 
court was presided over by one who was not a professional 
lawyer ; by one who seemed to have more regard for jus- 
tice and equity than for legal technicalities ; by one who 
cared nothing about the laws of Virginia, or law prece- 
dents of any State, if one or the other stood in the way 
of justice ; by one who preferred to be guided by the rules 
of common sense, rather than by the rules of law. To 
one who is not a professional man himself, all this may 
seem strange; but to one who has mingled much with 
professional men, it will be readily understood as com- 
prehending cases which have fallen under his own obser- 
vation. On the pretence of protecting the people, though 
really to protect their own selfish interests, both doctors 
and lawyers have procured the passage of laws in many 
States, whereby no one is authorized to practise in either 
profession until he shall have complied with such rules 
and regulations as these laws prescribe. It is virtually a 
relinquishment by the people of one of the very first 
principles of freedom — namely, the right to choose their 
own agents or servants, but it is submitted to on the plea 
that it keeps out quacks and pettifoggers. If, while keep- 
ing these out, it imparted more of common sense to those 
taken in, it would be at least compensating in its opera- 
tions, but it does neither. 

It was observed that immediately after the court fined 
that secessionist five hundred dollars for assault and threat 
to kill the Unionist (an account of which has heretofore 
been given), the Alexandria lawyer became doubly active 
in his opposition to the court, and it was stated, as a reason 
for his greatly increased activity, that the hardware mer- 
chant had agreed to give the five hundred dollars as a fee 
to the lawyer, provided he could get it back, and procure 
an order from General McClellan, or from the authorities 



TECHNICALITIES VS. COMMON SENSE. 26/ 

at Washington, to suppress the court. To effect this ob- 
ject the Alexandria lawyer applied to every prominent 
secessionist at Washington, and got from each the prom- 
ise to bring to bear whatever influence he could, through 
Northern sympathizers. He went himself, personally, to 
every lawyer in Washington, and appealed to each to 
protect the ** honor of their profession," by assisting to 
suppress a court which had no legal existence, or, at least, 
to remove from its head one who was not a lawyer, but 
a doctor, by profession. Even several Union lawyers 
were moved to activity by this plea for " protection to the 
profession," while secession lawyers were ready enough 
to make this, or anything else, a plea whereby to cripple 
the government. 

It came to the ears of Judge Freese that some of these 
professedly Union, but really disloyal, lawyers had gone 
direct to President Lincoln and urged him, both as Presi- 
dent and as a lawyer, to issue an order to suppress the 
Alexandria court, or, at least, direct the removal of the 
" doctor-judge." The reply, as reported by one who 
chanced to be present, was characteristic of President 
Lincoln, and in about the following words : " I have 
known Dr. Freese as a first-class physician for some 
years, and have only known of him as a judge for a few 
months : but from the way he administers law-doses to 
these Alexandrians, I am beginning to think that he is 
even a better judge than he is a doctor. He may not 
understand legal technicalities and the rules of courts 
quite as well as some lawyers I know of — present com- 
pany, of course, always excepted — but he shows in his 
decisions a wonderful deal of common sense, which is 
far better than rules of law or technicalities. What they 
say of the doctor reminds me of a story which is told 
of a man who said he could not cure chills and fever, but 
was * death on fits,* and wanted all his patients to have 



268 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

fits, when he would cure them at once. Most of our 
lawyers and judges are death on technicalities, but can't- 
cure the commonest ills to which society is subjected; 
whereas. Dr. Freese is curing the ills of Alexandria 
so rapidly and so successfully, that it will soon be one 
of the most healthy and one of the most thoroughly 
Union cities in the whole country. I would not interfere 
with him or his court for the world, and don't think any 
one else should." 

Finding that they could make no impression upon the 
President, they next went to the Secretary of War, Simon 
Cameron. He listened to all they had to say, and then 
replied about as follows : " Yes, I 've heard considerable 
about Freese's * Bayonet Court,' as secessionists and 
Northern sympathizers with secession call it, and the 
more I 've heard of it the better I like it. I only wish 
we had just such a court, and just such a judge at the 
head of it, in every city we *ve conquered from the rebels. 
They would do more towards extracting the venom of 
these secession serpents than all our armies combined. 
As to the Judge being a doctor, instead of a lawyer, by 
profession, that only makes me think the more of him. 
A lawyer is anybody's man who '11 pay him a fee, and 
the one who '11 pay the best is apt to get from him the 
best service, no matter on which side he pretends to be 
employed, but a doctor has only to cure the case in hand, 
and can have no conflicting interests ; and from the way 
Judge Freese is pulling out the teeth of those secession 
scoundrels, by taking from them the means to do harm 
and transferring it to the pockets of those to whom it 
justly belongs, and who will use it to sustain the Union 
cause, I am satisfied that he is just the man for the place, 
and on no account would I do anything to suppress either 
him or his court." 

Their next applications were to the Attorney-General, 



TECHNICALITIES VS. COMMON SENSE. 269 

Edward Bates, of Missouri, and Postmaster-General 
Montgomery Blair, of Maryland. Here they struck 
chords which were much more likely to prove responsive 
— not only because they each had been pro-slavery men 
all their lives, and would naturally resent Judge Freese's 
interference with the " institution," and with those who 
still claimed the right to hold and to use " human chat- 
tels " just as they pleased, but, more especially, because 
they were both lawyers, both felt a special interest in 
maintaining the ''dignity of the profession ;" for both ex- 
pected to return to active practice so soon as they vacated 
their then official positions in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. 
Mr. Bates took up the matter with great earnestness so 
soon as it was fairly before him, and, within one hour 
from the time the self-constituted committee left him. he 
was with the President, urging him to suppress the court. 
When Mr, Lincoln had expressed his opinions concerning 
it, Mr. Bates, for the time being, seemed entirely non- 
plussed ; but next day he returned to the attack with re- 
newed energy, and for days and weeks after that, when- 
ever he met the President, he had something to say 
against the Alexandria provost-court. Mr. Blair also 
spoke to the President concerning it, and strongly con- 
tended that it would greatly aid the Union cause, " es- 
pecially in the border States," if that court were sup- 
pressed. The President did not think so, and would give 
no such order. 

While these efforts were being made with the Presi- 
dent and with the Cabinet, corresponding efforts were 
being made with General McClellan, then in command of 
the troops on the south side of the Potomac. Within a 
week or two from the opening of the court, one of the 
General's aids called upon General Montgomery to make 
inquiry about it, and several times after that this same 
aid (whom the Union men of Alexandria knew person- 
23* 



270 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

ally as a pro-slavery Washington sympathizer with the 
rebellion, though professedly a Union man) called upon 
General Montgomery to protest against the acts of the 
court, so far as they related to the people of Alexandria. 
Whether always sent by General McClellan, or whether 
he sometimes called on his own volition, was not definitely 
known. The Alexandria secession lawyer seemed to be 
on intimate personal relations with this aid-de-camp, and 
it may have been that this personal relationship stirred up 
the aid to special efforts. Doubtless the lawyer kept 
the aid, and, through the aid. General McClellan, well- 
informed of all that was going on in Alexandria — espe- 
cially with regard to the doings of the provost court. 

Thus matters had gone on, and were going on, up to 
the time when the last case recorded in the previous 
chapter was decided by the court. The publicity given 
to that case, by the publication at length of the Judge's 
opinion in the New York Times and other Northern 
papers, aroused the entire pro-slavery^ secession-^y\x\'^dL' 
thizing element of the Northern States, and in a few 
days thereafter it came surging into Washington like a 
flood. It beat against the door of every Cabinet officer ; 
it rolled and tumbled about in every hotel and drinking- 
saloon ; it surged violently against the White House ; and 
even found its way into the executive chamber. Mr. 
Bates now put on renewed and increased vigor, and in- 
sisted with the President, that, as all United States courts 
belonged to his department, and the people held him re- 
sponsible, as Attorney-General, for their doings and mis- 
doings, he, and he alone, ought to have the deciding of 
the Alexandria matter, and, if left with him, he would at 
once suppress the court. 

When things had reached this crisis, the President sent 
word to Judge Freese to call upon him at his earliest con- 
venience. The Judge, after being stationed at Alexandria, 



TECHNICALITIES VS. COMMON SENSE. 2/1 

had, during the first few months, called frequently upon 
President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, and Secretary Cam- 
eron, as he had known them all personally, and somewhat 
intimately, for many years ; but for the month preceding 
this word from the President, the Judge had been kept so 
exceedingly busy with the affairs of his court that he had 
scarcely been to Washington. On the afternoon of the 
next day after getting Mr. Lincoln's message. Judge 
Freese called upon him, and was received with the utmost 
cordiality. So soon as they were entirely alone, the Pres- 
ident told the Judge of the position which Attorney-Gen- 
eral Bates had taken with reference to the Alexandria 
court, and added : " I really think Bates will resign unless 
he can have his own way in this thing. I wish, Doctor, 
you would call upon him at once, and see if you can't 
change his mind. It would be a dreadful thing, just now, 
when we are in the midst of a war, to have any Cabinet 
officer resign, as our enemies would regard it as showing 
weakness on our part, and as a triumph for themselves, 
and yet I don't want your court closed, if it can possibly 
be helped. Call upon Bates, Doctor, call upon Bates, and 
let me know the result." 

From the President's room the Judge went direct to 
Mr. Bates's office and had a long conference with him. 
The Attorney-General, while admitting the correctness 
of Judge Freese's decisions, so far as he had heard of 
them, still insisted that there was no /aw by which the 
existence of such a court was authorized, and therefore 
it ought to cease its operations at once. The Judge ad- 
mitted that he knew of no law by which such a court was 
authorized, but contended that " necessity knew no law," 
and that the existence of just such a court was a real 
necessity in Alexandria, not only as a means of preserving 
the peace of the city, but for all other purposes for which 
courts were ever used, since the State, county, and munici- 



2/2 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

pal courts had all run away when the Union troops came 
in, and this was the only court through which justice could 
be obtained in any case or for any purpose. All this, the 
Attorney-General said, seemed to be true, but it was better 
to wait for justice than to violate known rules of law in 
trying to obtain it. " The court has no legal existence, 
sir, the court has no legal existence," he kept saying 
over and over again, and this was his answer, and his 
only answer, to every argument brought forth by the 
Judge. The Judge finally made him this proposition : 
" If you, sir, will withdraw your opposition to the contin- 
uance of this court, I will enter into a bond with the 
United States government, in the sum of one hundred 
thousand dollars, with good and sufficient sureties, the 
condition of which bond shall be, that, when the war shall 
have ended, every case which has been adjudicated by 
that court, and every one which may be adjudicated by it 
hereafter, shall be revised by the Supreme Court of the 
United States, or by any one or more of the justices 
thereof, and if in any case it be found that injustice has 
been done, I will refund to the parties doubly the amount 
out of which they have been wronged because of the 
action of the court; or, if any punishment has been 
inflicted beyond what the Supreme Court will say was 
right, under the circumstances, I will pay to the party 
punished, or to his legal representatives, whatever dam- 
ages the Supreme Court may adjudge." 

" This, certainly," replied the Attorney-General, " is a 
very fair proposition on your part; but, sir, the court has 
no legal existence, no legal existence, and while I remain 
Attorney-General, and am responsible for whatever is done 
in this department of governmental affairs, I cannot con- 
sent that such a court shall continue." 

This ended their interview, for the Judge plainly saw 
that he might talk till doomsday and yet not change the 



TECHNICALITIES VS. COMMON SENSE. 273 

Attorney-General's mind an iota. "Convince a man 
against his will, and he remains of the same opinion 
still," says an old maxim, and never was the maxim 
better exemplified than in the case of Mr. Bates. He 
was one of those men who looked at everything, as it 
were, through a gun-barrel, and could see nothing to the 
right or left of the one line of vision ; one of those men 
who are so straight, that, like the Indian's gun, they " lean 
a little over ; " one of those self opinionated men, who, 
having once conceived an idea or prejudice, no amount 
of argument can change his mind. 

» The next day the Judge again called upon the Presi- 
dent, and told him all that had passed between the 
Attorney-General and himself The President laughed 
heartily at the " mulishness of old Bates," as he called it, 
and yet seemed a good deal annoyed at the unreasonable 
stubbornness manifested by the Attorney-General. He did 
not, he said, know what to do or to say. He was in a 
quandary, and could not see his way clearly out. Finally, 
he asked the Judge to call upon the Secretary of War, 
and see what he might say about it. 

The Judge then called upon Mr. Cameron, and told him 
of the interviews he had had with the President and with 
the Attorney-General, relative to the Alexandria court. 
The Secretary listened attentively, and, when the Judge had 
finished, expressed opinions about the Attorney-General 
more forcible than polite. He talked, he said, "just like 
a d — d old traitor, and if he is not one, his own tongue 
belies him ! " He strongly suspected, he said, that " both 
Bates and Blair were wolves in sheep's clothing, and this 
only went to confirm that opinion." He had, he said, 
" expressed as much to the President, and would do so 
again when next he met him." He had thought himself 
of resigning, rather than remain in the Cabinet in com- 
pany " with such d — d rascals and traitors to their coun- 

s 



274 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

try." For a full half-hour the Secretary fairly raved with 
excitement, and when the Judge was about to leave, told 
him to hold on, let come what would. 

In this connection it may be well to add that within a 
few weeks after that interview Mr. Cameron did resign his 
place in the cabinet, and Mr. E. M. Stanton was appointed 
in his stead ; but whether Bates's action in the case of 
the Alexandria court was one of his reasons for resigning, 
we have no means of knowing, though it is not at all im- 
probable. 

Again the Judge called upon the President, and told 
him what had passed between Secretary Cameron and 
"himself. The President seemed now more confounded 
than ever, and finally told the Judge to let things rest for 
a few days until he could think over the matter, and see 
what was best to be done. 

About a week after this, the aid-de-camp of General 
McClellan, who had so often before called upon General 
Montgomery, called again, and told him that it was Gen- 
eral McClellan's special wish that the provost-court should 
have nothing more to do with civil cases, or cases touch- 
ing the subject of slavery in any way. That while Gen- 
eral McClellan greatly preferred not to issue a formal 
order on the subject, yet he would certainly do so if 
his wishes could not be carried out in any other way. 
He was not willing, the aid said, to have Judge Freese 
interfere with the old citizens of Alexandria in any 
way, though if he chose to continue the court merely 
for the punishment of soldiers who got drunk within the 
city limits, or otherwise disturbed the peace, he had no 
objection. At the same visit, the aid delivered to Gen- 
eral Montgomery an order from General McClellan re- 
quiring the court to refund to the Alexandria hardware 
merchant the five hundred dollars which he had been 
required to pay as a fine, because of the assault, with 



TECHNICALITIES VS. COMMON SENSE. 2/5 

threat to kill, upon the Union man — all of which has 
heretofore been related. 

When the aid had gone, General Montgomery sent for 
Judge Freese, and they had a long conference as to 
what had best be done under the circumstances. The 
Judge had before told the General all that had passed 
between the President, the Attorney-General, the Sec- 
retary of War, and himself; and the General now told 
the Judge all that had passed between General McClel- 
lan's aid-de-camp and himself The Judge said that under 
no circumstances could he consent to continue the court, 
if thenceforth it was only to punish soldiers for drunken- 
ness and other misdemeanors ; that it had been exceed- 
ingly distasteful to him from the first to have to punish a 
soldier at all, and now to punish him alone, and let citi- 
zens, who committed offences far worse, go free from pun- 
ishment, would be, in his opinion, a mockery of justice, 
and he would not be the presiding officer of such a court ; 
that, it having gone abroad that the court was willing and 
ready to assist Northern creditors in their efforts to collect 
claims against disloyal debtors, it would now be exceed- 
ingly unpleasant to have to deny such claimants as might 
thereafter call, and, rather than have to do this, he would 
much prefer to see the court closed ; for then the public 
would place the responsibility just where it belonged. 
The Judge added, that he knew the court was placing 
the President in a very embarrassing position, so far as 
related to his Cabinet ; that, while Cameron and Seward 
were anxious to have the court continue, Bates and Blair 
were just as anxious to have it suppressed ; and from the 
order just received from General McClellan to return the 
five hundred dollars fine, it was entirely clear that the 
secessionists of Alexandria, and the sympathizers with 
secession at the North, had gained complete control over 



2y6 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

him ; from all of which the Judge thought it would be 
best to close the court. 

General Montgomery fully concurred with the Judge in 
all these views, and added that, as the court had been 
organized upon his order, without first consulting with 
General McClellan or the President, he would much pre- 
fer to have it close voluntarily, than to be compelled to 
close it upon the order of General McClellan or of the 
President. The Judge replied, that while he believed that 
President Lincoln would never issue such an order, no 
matter what the consequences to himself might be, still 
he should be glad to relieve the President from, what to 
him was evidently a great embarrassment; and if he, 
General Montgomery, would issue an order directing the 
court to close its operations on the next or any day fol- 
lowing, he, the Judge, would gladly announce the order 
from the bench and adjourn the court sine die. 

Such was the conclusion finally agreed upon. General 
Montgomery wrote out the necessary order and handed 
it to the Judge. Next day, after all the business before 
the court had been disposed of as usual, the Judge read 
General Montgomery's order from the bench, and ex- 
plained to those present why it had been issued. Had a 
cannon burst then and there and killed a hundred men, 
the surprise could not have been greater. Some raved 
at Attorney-General Bates, and pro-slavery men generally; 
others cursed General McClellan and Northern sympa- 
thizers with rebellion, generally ; deep and somewhat loud 
were the mutterings among all present; but the order 
was irrevocable, and thus closed at once and forever the 
provost-court of Alexandria. 

Had that court been continued, and others like it es- 
tablished in every city of the South, so soon as they came 
into the possession of Union troops, at least one hundred 
millions of dollars would have been collected from the 



TECHNICALITIES VS. COMMON SENSE. 2'JJ 

property of Southern debtors and gone into the pockets 
of Northern creditors ; the war would have ended two 
years sooner; over five hundred millions of dollars would 
have been saved to the United States treasury ; and over 
one hundred thousand lives been saved to the homes 
and families of both the North and the South. Only 
at the last judgment-day will it be known how great 
was the mistake — a mistake which, in its ultimate con- 
sequences, was not less ruinous to the South than to the 
North — of those who insisted upon, and who finally com- 
pelled, the closing of the provost-court at Alexandria. 

We say this after a full consideration of the whole sub- 
ject as drawn from the facts heretofore detailed in this 
volume, and do not think we shall have to take a single 
word of it back. True, very true, as eloquently stated in 
a letter from our old friend, J. E. Brush, Esq., of New 
York — " Floyd, Thompson, and Cobb, of Buchanan's 
Cabinet, had so disarmed and depleted the government 
of means, that Lincoln had very slender resources ; and 
the gullibility of Northern business men in filling the 
orders of Southern men for war material, for months pre- 
vious to the opening of the war, proves that they meant 
business, while the North did not take in the situation at 
all;" still we think, but for the secret machinations of 
Northern sympathizers — of men on whom, for a time, the 
government relied and entirely trusted, including generals 
in the field, officers in the navy, and even officers in the 
Cabinet — the war would have been ended at least two 
years sooner, and hundreds of millions saved to the tax- 
payers of the country. 

We are aware that such a statement at first sight seems 
extravagant, if not wild ; but if the reader will carefully 
weigh each factor of the problem, and follow out the re- 
lation which each bears to the other ; and then if he will 
suspend judgment until he shall have read the last chapter 
24 



2/8 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

and last line of this book — so that he shall have all the 
facts before him, all the secret springs which were so 
adroitly worked, but of which nobody even suspected the 
existence, all the villanies of men singly and of men 
united in political and religious associations — we have no 
doubt at all but what he will reach the same conclusion 
that we have reached in the above paragraph. Facts and 
figures never lie when properly placed ; but men are so 
disposed to shut their eyes against unpleasant facts, and 
so inclined to place figures in such a way as will bring the 
result they wish for, that the most palpable truths are often 
hid, and kept hid, from the public, until by some accident 
or incident the secrets are revealed, as in this volume. 




280 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 

WHEN, on the 15th of April, 1861, Abraham Lin- 
coln, as President of the United States, called for 
75,000 men, for three months, to suppress the rebellion, 
he did it after repeated consultations with every mem- 
ber of his Cabinet, both when assembled in council and 
privately with each individual member. That Cabinet 
was one of the ablest, if not the very ablest, that any 
President of the United States ever had about him. 
William H. Seward had been Governor of New York, 
had long been United States Senator, and understood the 
strength and resources of each individual State, and of 
the whole Union, as well, probably, as any man then 
living. Salmon P. Chase had been Governor of Ohio, 
long a United States Senator, was a thorough statistician, 
mathematician, and financier, and had made the resources 
of both States and nation a long and faithful study. 
Simon Cameron had been a statistician and banker nearly 
his whole life, had long been a United States Senator, 
was a man of unusually strong common sense, and had, 
from a political stand-point, made the Southern States 
and their peculiar institutions and resources a special 
study. Wells and Smith were good, strong, practical- 
sensed men ; while Blair and Bates were both Southern 
men, were thoroughly conversant with the institutions, 
with the leading men, with the wealth, and with the 
resources of every Southern State. 

One would have thought the combined wisdom of such 
24* 281 



282 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

a body of men as near perfection, as near certainty in 
political prophecy, as it was possible for men to attain, 
when judging of the future by inferences drawn from 
actual knowledge of the past and present ; and yet, sub- 
sequent events proved that never were men wider from 
the mark than were these men in advising the President 
to call out 75,CX)0 men for three months to subdue the 
rebellion. Why this great error of calculation and judg- 
ment? 

Those who have carefully read the preceding chapters 
of this book will have the answer, in part, but not the 
whole answer. Of course, President Lincoln and his 
Cabinet thoroughly understood the sympathy which ex- 
isted between English cotton-spinners and American 
cotton-growers, and, in their calculations, made due allow- 
ance for this feeling. They also understood thoroughly 
the sympathy existing between the aristocracy of Eng- 
land and king cotton of America ; for they well knew 
that the aristocracy of England were largely the owners 
of those cotton-mills or furnished the capital with which 
to run them. For this, then, they also made due allow- 
ance in all their calculations ; and, with a view to check- 
mate this influence as far as possible, sent Thurlow Weed 
on a secret mission to England. They understood the 
business relations of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company 
with the Southern States, as well as the relations of other 
incorporated companies, and of merchants generally, with 
the South. They knew of the debt that was then owing 
— nearly two hundred millions of dollars — from Southern 
merchants to Northern merchants, and fully compre- 
hended the sympathy which such community of interests 
would naturally create between the parties; and for all 
this made due allowance. They understood, of course, 
the love of gain natural to every man, and that merchants, 
manufacturers, and others, by the thousands, would be 



FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 283 

on the constant lookout to make money out of the war 
in any possible way commensurate with their own safety; 
and for this made due allowance in their calculations as 
to what was to be overcome. And last, but not least, 
they well understood the general sympathy which was 
felt by the Democratic party of the North for the people 
and peculiar institutions of the South, and how ready 
some of the leaders of that party would be to aid the 
South in any way they could with safety to themselves ; 
but they also understood that a very large number of the 
followers of the masses — of the bone and sinew of that 
party — were patriotic; while another portion, and a very 
large portion, would be ready to hire themselves to do 
whatever would pay best, and that if large monthly pay 
and large bounties were offered, these men would be as 
ready to hire themselves to kill their fellow-men as to 
slaughter cattle ; and with these two elements (the patri- 
otic and the mercenary), they believed the party could be 
so far controlled as to prevent it from doing any material 
injury to the Union cause. 

But while comprehending all these things, and making 
due allowance for them all, they did not comprehend nor 
make allowance for the deep-seated, desperate, condem- 
nable villany that was hid away in the hearts of these 
same Democratic leaders, and that would come forth from 
its hiding-places whenever and wherever it could do so 
with the hope of gain to itself, or with the hope of so 
crippling the Union cause that it would finally fail, when 
the affairs of the government would again fall into the 
hands of the Democratic party. 

They did not comprehend, nor was it possible for any 
human foresight to have conceived any one of the many 
secret devices recorded in the preceding chapters of this 
volume, whereby men could and would serve the rebel- 
lion in the guise of Unionism ; whereby men would, while 



284 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

playing the patriot, really be the most desperate rebels dt 
heart; whereby men could, while receiving pay as gener- 
als in the Union army, do acts whereby millions of dol- 
lars were lost to loyal merchants; whereby transpor- 
tation companies would, through its leading officers, while 
receiving large pay from the United States government 
for services legitimately rendered, be all the while aiding 
the rebellion by furnishing ships and money with which 
to exchange cotton for war materials and army supplies ; 
whereby, in a word, the Democratic party, as a party ^ 
would so exercise its influence that vice disguised would 
seem virtue personified; that the promise of a candidacy 
to the office of President would so change the heart and 
paralyze the arm of a Union general as to make him 
favor the rebel cause by delays, and by transferring 
(through the closing of a provost-court) the sinews of 
war (millions of dollars) from Union pockets to rebel 
coffers ; that steamship companies, while receiving the 
protection of Union arms, would be all the while aiding 
the rebel cause ; and that men, otherwise regarded as 
honorable, high-minded gentlemen, would, because of old 
political prejudice and present gain, meet in secret con- 
claves in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wash- 
ington, and then and there concoct the most desperate 
measures in aid of rebellion. These were secrets which 
no human eye could penetrate, exigencies against which 
no human foresight could provide, and hence it cannot 
be said in truth that these men failed in judgment, since 
they only failed upon points which were entirely outside 
of all human calculation. 

But for these things, three months* service of 75,000 
men would have been amply sufficient to crush the rebel- 
lion, and from this we draw our first inference — which no 
one can pronounce otherwise than fair — that whatever 
time it took beyond three months to crush the rebellion, 



FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 285 

whatever men it took beyond 75,CXX), whatever money it 
cost beyond the pay of 75 ,000 for three months, together 
with collateral expenses for the same time, and whatever 
lives it cost beyond what would have been the probable 
mortality among the 75,000, are chargeable, fairly charge- 
able, unquestionably chargeable, to the Democratic party 
as a party. We are careful to say as a party, for we know 
many individuals of that party who are as honorable, as 
pure, as patriotic as any in the Republican party, and who 
only continue their connection with that party (for they 
know its past sins and present corruptions quite as well 
as we do) either because their fathers were Democrats, 
and they do not wish to be regarded as " turn-coats," or 
because they think the chances of political preferment 
are better in the Democratic than in the Republican 
party ; or, as they have sometimes replied to us, half in 
jest and half in earnest, " the more corrupt the party is 
as a party y the greater necessity is there to have some 
good men remain in it, to prevent it from doing greater 
injury to the country." 

As historian, and as readers searching after truth, our 
next inquiry will naturally be — First. How much more 
time did it take to subdue the rebellion ? Second. How 
many more men did it take? Third. How much addi- 
tional did it cost? Fourth. How many additional lives 
were sacrificed? All these we regard as properly be- 
longing to " Secrets of the Late Rebellion, now 
Revealed for the First Time," for the reason that no 
one heretofore has ever made researches in this particular 
direction, and while the facts have existed ever since they 
came into being (just as the continent of America existed 
long before Columbus discovered it), yet they have never 
until now been revealed to the public in the relations and 
connections to which they historically belong. 

I. Though both North and South had been making 



286 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

preparations months before, the actual beginning of open 
war may be dated from the firing upon Fort Sumter, on 
the 1 2th of April, 1861. The close of the war may be 
reckoned from the surrender of General Lee to General 
Grant, at Appomattox Court-House, on April 9th, 1865, 
though it was months after before all the volunteer troops 
were disbanded and had reached their homes. From the 
firing on Fort Sumter to the surrender was three years, 
eleven months, and twenty-eight days ; or, to make the 
calculation still finer, from the calling out of the seventy- 
five thousand troops to Lee's surrender was three years, 
eleven months, and twenty-five days. Now, deduct from 
this three months, and you have the extra time consumed 
in crushing the rebellion, every month, every week, and 
every day of which is justly chargeable to the Democratic 
party. 

II. The records of the War Department show that 
2,688,523 men were called into the national service from 
the beginning to the end of the war. Deduct from this 
number 75,000, and you have the additional nMmb^r called 
into service because of the secret machinations and villa- 
nies heretofore spoken of, viz, 2,613,523, every man of 
whom is chargeable, fairly chargeable, unquestionably 
chargeable to the Democratic party. 

III. At the close of the fiscal year (June 30th) for 1861, 
the Treasurer reported the debt of the United States to be 
;^90,867,828. On the 31st of March, 1865, the Treasurer 
reported the public debt of the United States to be ;^2,423,- 
437,001, showing an increase during the war of ;^2,332,- 
567,173. This increase of debt of the general govern- 
ment by no means represents the sum- total cost of the 
war; for, meanwhile, the people had been paying im- 
mensely increased taxes every year, and beside this every 
State, every county, every large city, and almost every 
township of the North had been issuing bonds with which 



FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 28/ 

to pay bounties and other war expenses, so that in 1865 
the amount of bounties paid by States and local authorities, 
so far as returned to the general government, amounted 
to 11285,941,036. Add this to the government debt and 
you have the sum of ;$2,709,378,037. It is difficult, if not 
impossible, for any mind to really comprehend so large a 
sum, and the only way to appreciate it is to divide it among 
families, or individualize it. In i860 the United States 
census returns show for the eighteen Northern States 
18,855,831. In 1870 the returns show for the same States 
24,035,359. There being no census returns for 1865 (as 
the United States census is only taken at the close of each 
ten years), the only way to approximate the population 
then is to divide the increase between i860 and 1870. 
This indicates a population in these eighteen States for 
1865 to have been about 21,445,595. Now the average 
estimate for each family is five. This would give us 
4,289,119 families as existing in these States at that time. 
Next, divide the number of families into the number of 
dollars of public debt, and you show that upon each family 
was saddled, at the close of the war, a debt of ;^63i.68. 
Or, to individualize it, divide this sum by five, and you 
have the sum of ;^ 126. 3 3 as the average debt then owing 
by every man, woman, and child then residing in the eigh- 
teen Northern States. Thus, it mattered not how poor a 
man was, or how many children he had, a ticket of indebt- 
edness for the sum of ;$ 126.33 was plastered on the fore- 
head of each. " Oh, well," some one may say, ** that was 
easy enough for rich men to pay, and of course the poor 
never paid it, nor never will, since many of the very poor 
never handle as much money as that in all their lives. 
Why, to a man with ten children (and the poor, you know, 
generally have the most) that would have made a debt of 
III 5 1 $.96, which of course he could never pay, in addition 
to supporting his family." Ah ! but, my friend, there is 



288 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

just where you are most mistaken ; for it is just that class 
of men, together with farmers, who do pay much the larger 
proportion of public debts. True, they never pay it, nor 
would try to pay it, in dollars and cents to the tax-gath- 
erer ; but they pay it in the increased price they pay the 
merchant for the tea and coffee they drink, for the mus- 
lins and woollens, and hats and shoes they wear ; they 
pay it in increased rents and decreased wages ; and the 
farmer pays it not only in every article that he purchases, 
but in increased taxes and in decreased receipts for what 
he raises to sell. And what these fail to pay, the rich have 
to pay in increased taxes for State, cpunty, township, or 
municipal purposes. 

Now let us apply these facts to the solving of the prob- 
lem (third) — How much additional did it cost? 

This we can only do approximately by stating the 
problem thus: If to bring into the field 2,688,523 men for 
forty-seven months cost ;^2,709,378,037, how much would 
it have cost to bring in 75,000 for three months? De- 
duct this sum, amounting to ;^4,824,369 from the whole 
cost, and we have remaining the sum of ;^2,704,553,668 
as the additional cost of the war because of the secret 
machinations and most desperate villanies described in 
the previous chapters of this book — every dollar of which, 
every penny of which, is justly chargeable to the Demo- 
cratic party as a party. Or, to make the matter still 
plainer, more than three-fourths of all the taxes which 
the poor man, or farmer, or rich man has heretofore paid, 
or will hereafter pay, whether upon what he eats and 
drinks and wears, or upon cash paid tax-collector, is di- 
rectly chargeable to the Democratic party. 

IV. How many additional lives were sacrificed ? This, 
like the last question, can only be answered approximately, 
and by the same process of reasoning. 

The reports made to the War Department, during the 



FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 289 

war, show the total loss to have been 280,420 men — the 
very sight of which figures makes the heart sink in agony 
and sicken over the thought, and yet there is no escaping 
their terrible reality. 

To get at the additional sacrifice, the proposition may 
be stated thus : If in a war lasting forty-seven months, 
with 2,688,523 men in service (of whom 1,500,000 it is 
estimated were in battles), the sacrifice of life amounted 
to 280,420 men, what would have been the sacrifice had 
the war lasted only three months, with 75,000 men in 
service ? The answer to this problem is 499 lives. Now 
take this number from the former, and you have as the 
additional number 279,921 lives — the loss of which is as 
fairly attributable to the Democratic party as though it 
had by sentence condemned, and by its own power had 
executed, every one of these men. 

The remains of thousands and tens of thousands who 
died in the service never were gathered, but to-day lie in 
Southern swamps, scattered over Southern cotton-fields, 
or at the bottom of the deep, blue sea, " unknown, 
unhonored, and unwept ; " but the remains of other 
thousands and tens of thousands have been gathered, 
and now lie in National cemeteries at Arlington Heights, 
at Gettysburg, at Antietam, at Beverly, and at many other 
places throughout the length and breadth of our land. 
The above calculations show — and figures never lie when 
correctly placed — that if upon ninety-five out of every one 
hundred headstones erected to the memory of these de- 
parted heroes in the National and private cemeteries 
of our country, were written the words. Died by the 
HANDS OF the DEMOCRATIC PARTY, the record would be 
as true as anything now written upon those headstones. 

We are fully aware of the terrible character of this in- 
dictment. We know already how many thousands will 
hold up their hands in holy horror and exclaim. Oh, this 
25 T 



290 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

cannot be so ! These are not the words of a historian, 
but of a politician, who allows his prejudices to get the 
better of his reason ! But hold, my friend, hold, and think 
twice before you condemn once. Are they not words of 
truth and soberness ? Examine each proposition just as 
carefully as you would examine one of Euclid's problems 
(for this is just what we have tried to do), and see if it 
is possible to reach any other conclusion. Republican 
though we certainly are, yet, in examining these ques- 
tions as a historian, we have tried to divest our mind of 
every particle of political prejudice, and though the results 
of our researches and calculations are as astounding, as 
terrible, as sickening-of-heart to us as they can possibly 
be to any one of our readers, yet the figures would show 
no other, and we have had to accept them as veritable. 

And yet the secret is only half out — the story, as yet, 
but half told. The losses of time, of money, and of 
lives heretofore spoken of relate only to the North — the 
Southern side of the story remains yet to be told; for in 
this volume we are writing no less for the information of 
Southern than of Northern men, nor would we in this 
record do any less justice to the South than to the North. 

Jefferson Davis, however wild and mistaken politically, 
was never other than a high-minded, chivalrous gentle- 
man. He was just as honest in his advocacy of slavery 
as Paul was in his advocacy of Phariseeism ; and when 
Davis went forth to catch, imprison, and, if need be, to 
slay the enemies of slavery, he did it as conscientiously 
as Paul did, or meant to do, his work, in going to Damas- 
cus with the commission of a high-priest in his pocket. 
Not only so, but President Davis was a man of deep 
knowledge, a thorough statistician, a cool calculator, and 
one who never took a step without first carefully counting 
the cost. He was the farthest possible remove from a 
reckless man. When a young man in the United States 



FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 29I 

army and with the troops in Mexico, he never struck a 
blow, or made the least move, without first considering 
all the chances. In this respect he was almost as careful 
and as prudent as his renowned father-in-law. General 
Zachary Taylor. As a United States Senator he was re- 
markable for his caution and foresight, and though he 
sometimes took part in sharp debate, his general political 
tactics were conservative, watch for chances, investigate 
thoroughly, and then strike with effect. 

Now, we have it only second- handed from President 
Davis's own lips that he would never have thought of a 
war with the North — never would have recommended 
such a war — never would have engaged in such a war — 
" but for encouragement given him, mid actual pledges made 
him, by leading Democrats of the Northern States!' He 
had once been Secretary of War ; he had been a United 
States Senator for several years preceding the rebellion ; 
he thoroughly understood the resources, not only of the 
general government, but of each individual State, and 
would, as he said, have thought it perfect madness for the 
South to have attempted a separate confederation, ** btit 
for the pledges of assistance made him and others by lead- 
ing Democrats of the Northern States." Of this, as an his- 
torical fact, there is no more doubt than that there was a 
war. Outside of President Davis's own word, the facts 
heretofore related in this volume, and a thousand others 
which might be adduced, are confirmatory of these state- 
ments. 

Again, the men whom President Davis had about him 
as a Cabinet and as outside advisers were generally men 
of marked intelligence and large experience, one of whom 
(John Tyler) had been President of the United States ; 
some had been United States Senators ; others, Congress- 
men ; others had all their lives been connected with the 
army or navy; and scarcely one of all but what thor- 



292 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

oughly understood the strength and resources, not only 
of the general government, but of each State, North and 
South. Is it to be presumed that a single one of these 
men would have ever thought of rebellion, or said one 
word to encourage it, but for the assurances they had from 
leading Northern Democrats that the party, as a party , 
would sustain them in such a movement? 

If these facts be admitted, and this inference be con- 
ceded, does it not follow as an inevitable conclusion that 
the Democratic party, as a party, is responsible before 
God, and should be held responsible before all men, for 
the time wasted, the money squandered, and the lives sacri- 
ficed by the South in their attempt to establish a separate 
confederacy ? 

We cannot give the exact figures, for the archives of 
the Confederate government were mostly destroyed when 
the rebels fled and the Union army took possession of 
Richmond ; but think, reader, think how many weary 
days, and weeks, and months, and years of untold suffer- 
ing that was caused by that mad and murderous attempt; 
think of the houses burned, homes desolated, plantations 
ruined, by the frenzy and fury of reckless demagogues ; 
think of the thousands of affluent families made homeless 
and penniless by this mad attempt, and of the thousands 
upon thousands who were once comfortable now turned 
out as beggars to die, through the efforts of a band of 
conspirators ; think of the millions upon millions of hard- 
earned dollars squandered, worse than squandered, by 
this mad attempt ; think of the thousands upon thousands 
of wives made widows, children made fatherless, parents 
made childless, by this foul treason ; and then think — for 
if you are honest with your own conscience, and can rid 
yourself of political prejudice, you must think it — that all 
this waste of time, all this squandering of money, all this 
sacrifice of lives, all this suffering of wives, of children. 



FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 293 

of parents, is unquestionably chargeable to the Democratic 
PARTY ; and, with this last thought, ask yourself the ques- 
tion, What should be thought of — what should be the fate 
of — a party guilty of such unparalleled wickedness ? 

Of course, to this last question there could be but one 
answer, and yet the party feebly lives I Why it lives — 
for what purpose it lives — would be the next question 
which would naturally arise with every searcher after 
truth. To these inquiries we will try to give an answer, 
not an opinion merely, but an answer founded upon ac- 
credited history, as have been all the answers heretofore 
given. 

It is well known to every student of history that, as 
far back as 1817, the leading sovereigns and princes of 
Europe, in their solemn conclaves and secret treaties with 
each other, formed the determination to subvert the liberties 
of the United States. Much of what was said and done at 
that time leaked out, and was duly communicated by our 
ministers and consuls abroad to the general government ; 
but so conscious was our government of its own strength 
in the hearts of the people, that all such threats passed 
them by like the idle wind. When, however, the Duke 
of Richmond died in Montreal in 18 19 — a man whom 
everybody knew to be a sagacious and wise statesman, 
and whose many high employments had made him in- 
timate with all the sovereigns and politics of Europe, and 
whose deep personal interests at stake gave to his opin- 
ions immense weight — and when he declared, a short time 
before his death, that " The surplus population of Europe, 
when not wanted for the armies and navies of their own 
land, would be permitted to flock here, and would be 
entitled to vote ; and, mingling in the elections without a 
knowledge or a love of the laws, or even the language, 
of the country, will be tools for demagogues^ and create a 
disturbing influence^ which the government cannot with- 
as* 



294 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

stand ; " and when to this he added, " I have conversed 
with many of the princes and sovereigns of Europe, par- 
ticularly with George III. and Louis XVIIL, and they 
have unanimously expressed these opinions relative to 
the government of the United States, and their determi- 
nation to subvert it'' — when, we say, these were published 
and became generally known shortly after his death, they 
did for a little while create some excitement, and both 
government officials and the people had something to say 
about these statements ; but such was the confidence felt 
in our own strength, that the words of the Duke were 
soon forgotten, and were laid away with the ** mouldering 
past." 

Only three years thereafter (in A. d. 1822) the great 
powers of Europe held a congress at Vienna, and among 
the conclusions then and there reached, and which formed 
a part of their treaty stipulations, the two following cannot 
but strike Americans with great force : 

"Article I. The high contracting powers being con- 
vinced that the system of representative governments is 
equally as incompatible with monarchical principles, as 
the maxim of the sovereignty of the people with the divine 
right of kings, engage mutually, in the most solemn 
manner, to use all their efforts to put an end to the system 
of representative governments in Europe, and to preveftt 
its being introduced into those countries where it is not 
known. 

"Article II. As it cannot be doubted that the liberty 
cf the press is the most powerful means used by the pre- 
tended supporters of the rights of nations to the detri- 
ment of those princes, the high contracting powers 
PROMISE reciprocally to adopt all proper means to 
suppress it." 

The representatives of this government in Europe got 
hold of these articles soon after, and duly communicated 



FACTS, FIGURES, AND FAIR INFERENCES. 295 

them to the State Department at Washington; and the 
newspapers of this country also got hold of them, and 
for awhile had considerable to say about them ; but ere- 
long the excitement of both government and people died 
out, and things went on in their usual way. How many 
times since then the powers of Europe have met in secret 
conclave and reaffirmed what they theti said, and adopted 
secret measures whereby to carry out these resolves, is 
not generally known, for the reason that the excitement 
following their first promulgation gave them warning that 
whatever they said or did in that direction thereafter 
had better be with closed doors, and under the most 
sacred pledges of profound secrecy. 

The congress at Vienna was held soon after they had 
lodged the First Napoleon safely at St. Helena, and when 
all the world seemed to be applauding them for the act, 
and hence their outspoken boldness in denouncing rep- 
resentative forms of govemm,e7tt and the liberty of the press. 
Indeed, in view of what they had all just witnessed, and 
some of them severely felt, it was not at all unnatural 
that they should have adopted the two articles quoted ; 
and that they should have ever since felt that there was 
an irrepressible conflict between the "divine right of kings" 
and representative forms of government — between the 
absolute rule of kings and the liberty of the press, and 
that one or the other must eventually supersede the 
other. Hence, with them it became a question of self- 
preservation — the very first law of nature — and under 
such circumstances it was not at all wonderful that they 
resolved just as they did. 

They had recently witnessed the final act of a French 
drama and tragedy combined — the French Revolution, 
and the career of Napoleon as a consequence thereof — 
which they regarded as results of a representative form 
of government and of the liberty of the press ; but which 



a9^ SECRSTS OK V\\\< I A IK KMUCl.l U>N. 

>V(Mr tv'suUs i.itluM ol" ;VyVA"/S»w,v//»/r' \ >. ... |>n(Mi\nuM\t 
and /l4Y#^AY Ol tho jMv'ss. \\wy \\.\A ',,c\\ kh \c,u\ ol tlir 
assemhlitUT ol A V\c\w\\ \\\\\\.\\\u\\{ lh.it had rchi^rvl lv> 
lv^;istor tho ro\\\l (nhits, \\\cy \\ak\ witnr^srvl or ir.iil ot 
the tiisputcs hct\\v\M\ thv- Uimj; .\\u\ \\\\\\a\\\c{\{, .uul the 
t!oath Si>on artor ot I. ours \ \\ ; tioiw thruio they h.iJ 
ol>stMvovl the spnwvl i>l' hlHM.il opii\ivM\s .u\il the acerssuMi 
ot I o»ns \\ 1 to thr thiotiv- ol l«'rance ; next, thcN* li.ul 
soon or uailoltlio caUiiu; to^;othcM' of the States (IcMUMal. 
a\u\ how thov, soi>t\ aOiM assoniMinp;. hail assunied the 
name ol tho "National .\ssenU>ly;" tluy knew oi the 
iiistnissal of Neekar; the destruction o( the J^astile; the 
tthoHshmeiU o( the ptivile^ves o( the ni>l>les and cleij;y, 
und o( the lust insuh i>lVereil to the kinsj auil royal 
family; o\ Ki^Uespierre's jvovemment atul the vlieaillnl 
disorders aeei>jnpaiy\ini; it; o( l.alayette's i(\si|M\atii>n ; 
ot i\\c trial ai\d e\(\utii>n o( l.onis W'l. and ol his ijueen, 
Marie AntiMnvite. aiul t^l th(^ Puke t>l Oileans; ol the 
l^i^nventii^n's ahjvnativ^n oi the C\ulii>lie religion and sul>- 
stitutio!\ o( fr,ts,'ff ii\ its place; ol' the aholiliiMi t>r the 
S;\hhath ; of the tens oi thvuisands beheads vl. ov v>ther- 
wise skniiihtercil, in Paris; o\' lunv Napi>lei>n Honaparte 
had finally appeared npot\ the scene, atiil tor a while 
seemeil to still the tri>nM(^l wattMS ; hut how h(" eielon^ 
Uv"*! vmiIn' \isuipi\l the iiown. but ivMiinuMieed wai upon 
ahuvvst ;*V(M\' nation oi l"'uri>pc^; how in a hundt<\l l>attles 
t"oui;ht by him. at Austerlit/. ai\d t^lsewhere. he had hecMi 
successful in almv>st everN* one ; htnv he luui t'uhdl\" in- 
vailcil Russia auil thus defeated himscMf; how he was 
j\l\crwarils made to lesis^n and sent in banishn\ent to 
Elba; how he had a'.\un reappear d m France and re- 
sinned pi>wer; how all the allied powers o( l\urope tluMi 
deteri\uned upon his ilestruetivMi ; how he was defeateil 
at the battle o( Waterloo ; how he aOerwaiMs surrendcrcil 
himself into the hands of the KngUsh ; and how, on the 



yh(.i:, I' I', i; if I'.:, AUh yhiif mtflCtilLnCZM, 297 

I 7Uj of ^ : ^. / 5, be wa# hntkd at St, Helciu a prj»- 

onnr of war, * 

All this they knew, an<^l all thi« the/ ^.et ^Jov/n a« the 
natural r'r?>ult'^ of a nprnifntatLve form of y/zucrnment and 
tIj'T liht'/i^ of ilir fma, ami \\i:tic/ii it wa» that the fir»t two 
nr\v.\''/y of t}j' t/'jfy, from which we have heretofore 
qiioU:'!, wr'' '.j/'M-iny aimed ny/^ihtnt them; and a ftolemn 
j>ledj(e ma^tJe, each t/> the other, that they mu»t j^k uur 
WYiutSfM. ()i (jtnruft, no mention wa* made in that treaty 
of the United SUtUtn ; for tr> have dr>ne »o would have 
been virtually a declaration of war; but a» it wa» then 
generally l>elieved amonj^ the »ovcrcign» and princes of 
l'Jjroj>e that the Fren/;h Revolution of 17H9 watt a natu- 
ral outj/rowth from the American Rtrvolution of 1776, and 
that Iwifayettc wa?i at the hott^^m of it all — havinjj imbibed 
the idea^ from Geor^^e Wa^hin^ton, John AtlnmH, John 
\\',ii\(jKM, and other revolutioni'^ts of America, — the in- 
ference i» plain and unmistakable that tho:': t v/r^ articles 
were aimed at the United States, and that the v/ord " Ku- 
ro[>e " — where it rearls they " en/fa/fe mutually^ in tlie mo it 
solemn manner^ to u^c att their efforts to put an en/l to the 
system of repreientatvue y//ijernm^nts in J'jurope " — was only 
meant a?* a blinder. 

But, it may next be asked, allowing all thi^ to be »o, 
have they been doin^; anything since that time whereby 
\jL) carry out any fiuch intention ? 

To thii inquiry, we answer yes, and will now proceed 
to show, briefly but unmistakably, how they have been 
carryin'^/ out such intentions; and this, too, come* legiti- 
mately under the \\tv.if\ of " Sw;ket» of the Late Re- 
lii'.LLifjti, s()w Rkvkalk/j i'OK THE FiRST TiME," sincc no 
one, to our knowled^^e, has ever heretofore shown the 
clofie relationship and unity of purpose between these 
same ICuropean governments and the Democratic party 
of the United States ; and how, in the late rebellion (a» 



298 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

in many instances before that time), they joined hands to 
destroy this government, and to break down the liberty of the 
press. 

The first two political parties in the United States were 
known as Federal Sind Republican. In 1800, John Adams 
was the candidate of the Federalists for a second presiden- 
tial term, and Thomas Jefferson the candidate of the Re- 
publicans. Jefferson was elected, and took his seat as 
President of the United States on the 4th of March, 
1 80 1. After a time, these two names gave way to Whig 
and Democratic. These continued until the name Repub- 
lican took the place of Whig, in 1856-60. In its earlier 
days the Democratic party, as a party ^ was as pure and 
patriotic as any party that ever existed in this or any 
other country ; but when the question of " Protection to 
Home Industry'' (of which Henry Clay was the leading 
champion in his time) became a prime question in Amer- 
ican politics; and when, because that this question in- 
volved the interests of European capitalists and manu- 
facturers, Augustus Belmont, of New York city (a 
European by birth, a Jew, and the agent in this country 
of the Rothschilds', the great Jew banking-house of Eu- 
rope, to whom almost every sovereign in Europe was 
indebted for loans), became the Chairman of the National 
Democratic Executive Committee — from that moment the 
Democratic party, as a party, became as completely in the 
interests of European sovereigns, capitalists, and manu- 
facturers, as though every member of the party, as well 
as its head and front, had been born a European. We 
are not, of course, attempting to write a history of par- 
ties. To do so would require a volume of itself, and a 
large one at that. We have only made this running sketch 
that those not familiar with general history may readily 
see and understand the \kwcci\?X'd\!:.2i!Q\^ historical relationship 
which exists, and which has existed for some forty years 



FACTS, FIGURES; AND FAIR INFERENCES. 299 

past, between the Democratic party, as a party, and Eu- 
ropean governments, European capitalists, and European 
manufacturers. 

With this fact in mind, it is easy to understand why 
ninety out of every one hundred European emigrants 
who come to this country attach themselves to the 
Democratic party ; easy to understand why the entire 
influence of the Roman Catholic Church (which is the 
church of nine-tenths of the sovereigns of Europe) 
should be thrown in favor of the Democratic party ; 
easy to understand why more than ninety-five out of 
every one hundred Jews who come to this country 
from Europe attach themselves to the Democratic party ; 
and easy to understand why, in the late rebellion, the 
Democratic party, as a party^ cooperated with English 
lords, with English capitalists, and with English manu- 
facturers (as shown in previous chapters of this volume), 
in trying to break down this government, and establish 
a slaveocracy in its stead — the leaders (not the masses) 
well knowing that this would soon give way to a yet more 
concentrated form of government in order to hold their 
slaves in subjection — either a landed and family aristoc- 
racy ^ like that of England, or an absolute monarchy, like 
that of Austria, in either of which cases a representative 
or republican form of government and the liberty of the 
press would have been effectually and forever suppressed. 

The answer, then, to the two questions. Why it lives ? 
For what purpose it lives? are, to the first. Because of the 
additions made to the party from year to year from for- 
eign emigration ; and to the second the answer is, For 
the purpose of playing into the hands of European sover- 
eigns, European capitalists, and European manufacturers, 
with a view to set aside a representative form of govern- 
ment, and destroy the liberty of the press in this country ; 
and these answers we give, it will be observed, not from 



3CX5 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

a political, but from a historical, stand-point — facts which 
cannot be controverted, and deductions from those facts 
as natural and as undeniable as that we know arsenic to be 
a poison, because it invariably kills when taken in certain 
doses. And that the Democratic party, as a party, is as 
deadly a poison as arsenic we know to be true, because it 
has killed its thousands and tens of thousands, than which 
we want no other or better proof than is furnished by the 
preceding chapters of this volume. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Wf/Y THE SOUTH HAS NOT DENOUNCED THE DEMO- 
CRATIC PARTY— WHAT KEEPS THE PARTY ALIVE — 
WHAT THE FINAL END OF THIS REPUBLIC. 

THREE more questions, please, and then I will not 
trouble you more. What you have already said 
seems to be true, and yet so new and so strange are these 
revelations to my ears — stranger than any fiction I ever 
read in the works of Sir Walter Scott or others — that had 
you not substantiated each proposition with arguments 
drawn from antecedent probability, from sign, and from 
example, I could scarcely have believed them. But three 
j queries yet remain in my mind. Allowing all that you 
have said to be veritable history, how comes it that the 
South has not denounced the Democratic party for its 
perfidy in making promises which it never fulfilled? 
How comes it that, with such a weight of sin upon it, the 
party can still be kept alive ? And, from all your study 
of history, what deductions do you draw as to the final 
decline and fall — if such a thing is to be — of this Re- 
public? 

Your questions are plain, frank, yet pointed, and I 
will endeavor to answer each in as plain and frank a 
manner. First, as to the truth of what we have already 
said, if the statements and propositions related to any 
other than a political subject, there would be no more 
doubt of their truthfulness than of any statement or prop- 
osition made by Gibbon, Macaulay, Bancroft, or any 
other historian. But upon the two subjects of politics 
and religion, men are generally so set in their opinion 

303 



304 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

that blindness in the one and bigotry in the other seems 
to be as natural to the human mind " as for grass to be 
green, or skies to be blue, on bright clear days in June." 
Nor are such statements ever allowed to go unchallenged, 
however true they may be, unless the parties have been 
so long dead and buried that no sympathy remains. 
What Macaulay says of political parties and of church 
influences in his History of England, is just as true as any 
other part of his admirable work, and yet the work had 
scarcely made its appearance before the most violent 
epithets were hurled at him because of these. Had Gib- 
bon written his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ten 
or even five centuries earlier, it would have received most 
bitter denunciation from all who yet sympathized with the 
•wrongs which Gibbon pointed out, and even so late as the 
eighteenth century, when his work was first published, it 
did not escape censure. While Bancroft only wrote of 
the long, long ago, in his capital History of the United 
States, nobody questioned his statements or deductions ; 
but as he approached nearer to the present, and had of 
necessity to say something of the acts and influence of 
political parties and of churches, he awoke the sleeping 
demons — blindness and bigotry — and from thenceforth 
there was more or less growl whenever a new volume 
appeared. I revive and mention these facts now, only to 
show you, my friend, that I am not at all surprised at 
your inquiries ; nor shall I be surprised if the last six 
chapters of this volume, and, because of these, the whole 
book, are most violently and bitterly denounced by the 
entire Democratic press of this country, and by every 
religious and political journal in this country and Europe 
whose special province it is to uphold foreign religious 
and political influence. With these as introductory re- 
marks, I will now proceed to answer your inquiries. 
I. How comes it that the South has not denounced the 



THE SOUTH AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 3O5 

Democratic party for its perfidy in making promises which 
it never fulfilled? 

We have no sympathy now, and never had, with rebel- 
lion, as such ; and, while it continued, helped to fight it as 
best we could ; but we had then, and have now, a very 
deep sympathy with those who were blindly led to their 
own destruction by wicked, designing men. To no peo- 
ple in all of history are the words of our blessed Saviour 
more applicable than to the people of the South, when 
he said, " Woe imto the zvorld because of offences ! for it must 
needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom, 
the offence comethf " 

We have heretofore spoken of Jefferson Davis, his 
Cabinet, and of others with whom he advised, as high- 
minded, honorable gentlemen. This character they had 
before the war, maintained it during the war, and such as 
survived continued to maintain it after the war. After the 
war, Mr. Davis had but little to say of the events of the 
past. He preferred not to talk of them at all, as he often 
said to those who broached the subject, and never would 
talk of them except to his most confidential friends. He 
desired to live a quiet, peaceful, retired, Christian life, in 
the bosom of his little family (and no man ever had a 
truer or more faithful helpmeet than Mrs. Davis proved 
to be to her husband), nor would he allow himself to talk 
of politics at all, as before stated, except to a very few. 
From one of these few we have it, as from Mr. Davis's own 
lips, that no one felt, nor could feel, more keenly than he 
did, the perfidy, the meanness, the baseness which had been 
practised upon the South by certain leading Democratic 
politicians of the North ; and yet he could not but recol- 
lect that others, as they had opportunity, had aided him 
and their cause to the full extent of their ability, and had 
the will to aid them a thousand times more, if they could 
have done so with safety to themselves, personally and 
26* U 



306 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

pecuniarily. This last recollection took the keen edge 
off the first, and left a sort of dulcamara — a bitter-sweet — 
to rest upon his mind. 

And, besides this, only a choice of evils was left to 
him and his followers. Their own party of Secession 
having been destroyed, only the Democratic and Repub- 
lican parties remained. To side with or go into the 
Republican party was out of the question. Such as did, 
would be charged with, or suspected of, treachery by both 
sides. To denounce and yet expect to get into, or co- 
operate with, the Democratic party, was out of the ques- 
tion. No one can regard as a friend one that curses him. 
So, you see, they were walled in, as it were, on every 
side, and, as a choice of evils, thought it best to go into 
the Democratic party — to which most of them had be- 
longed all their lives, previous to the rebellion — to hold 
their peace, and to " wait for the good time coming'' which 
the voice of certain siren leaders still whispered into 
their ears. We say this not in a poetic, but in a historic 
sense ; for we know it to be true that, after the close of 
the rebellion, prominent leaders of the Democratic party 
North said to prominent gentlemen of the South that so 
soon as they could get the general government once 
again into their own hands, all Southern claims upon the 
government, because of the war, should be adjusted, the 
same as Northern claims had been ; all bonds issued by 
the Confederate government during the war should be 
placed upon precisely the same footing as the bonds 
issued by the United States government during the same 
period; and that slavery should be restored as it was be- 
fore the war, or those who had owned slaves, or their 
legal representatives, should be paid full value for every 
slave they had lost. When it was said to them that to 
do all this would require several alterations in the United 
States Constitution as it now stands, their ready reply 



THE SOUTH AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 307 

was, " Only put the government into our hands, and 
we '11 find means to amend the Constitution just as readily 
as to make laws, for all needed purposes. Your wrongs 
and ours will find a way, or make one.'' With such as- 
surances, made over and over again in the most solemn 
manner, how could a Southern man find it in his heart 
to denounce the Democratic party, notwithstanding all 
the wrongs he had suffered from it ? 

Some seventeen years have now passed since the close 
of that war. As a matter of history it is well known that 
over ninety-five per cent, of those who had taken an 
active part in the Confederate cause went into the Demo- 
cratic party, and since that time have steadily cooperated 
with that party. A few, a very few, could not, as they 
said, forgive the treachery and the wrongs of the Demo- 
cratic party towards the South, and these went into the 
Republican party — some honestly, no doubt ; others, only 
because they thought it would ''pay best'' 

Another answer to your query would be, that in not 
denouncing, but by going into, the Democratic party a 
very large proportion of Southern men were only return- 
ing to their first love. In the days of Whiggery several 
of the Southern States gave Whig majorities ; but when 
that party died, because of its coquetting with slavery, 
and the Republican party took its place, the leading prin- 
ciple of which new party was opposition to slavery, first, 
as to its extension, and then as to its continuance, nearly 
the whole vote of the South became Democratic. This 
was very plainly shown in the vote cast for Franklin 
Pierce and Winfield Scott (the last Whig candidate), in 
1852, when the former received two hundred and fifty-four 
electoral votes and the latter only forty-two. Indeed, it 
I was this fact, and the great preponderance of Democratic 
votes at that election, that gave to the Secessionists of 
the South, and their sympathizers, aiders, and abettors of 



308 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the North, the encouragement which caused them to in- 
augurate a rebellion in 1 860. It was this, together with the 
fact that out of the thirty-two preceding years — from the 
election of Jackson in 1828 to that of Lincoln in i860 — 
the Democrats had held the power twenty-four years and 
the Whigs only eight. They had grown to look upon the 
Democratic power as invincible, and their European coad- 
jutors had been made to believe that the time had finally 
come when the hated representative form of the United 
States government could be changed into a slaveocracy, 
then into an aristocj'acy, and then into a kingly form of 
government; while a censorship could be placed upon the 
press so effectual, that from thenceforth it could never do 
European sovereignties or the Roman Catholic Church 
any harm. Those who only saw the outside of the late 
rebellion supposed that it had its incipiency in i860, 
whereas those who knew of its itiside workings (as we all 
know now), knew that preparations had been going on for 
eight years previous, and that both Franklin Pierce and 
James Buchanan, from 1852 to i860, had only been used 
as tools or instruments by which to forward these prepa- 
rations. The result of the Presidential vote in 1856 only 
made those in the secret o{ the secession movement (both 
in this country and in Europe) the more determined to 
strike the blow in i860; for they saw by that vote that, 
while their candidate, Buchanan, was elected by a majority 
of fifty-two electoral votes (Buchanan one hundred and 
seventy-four, Fremont et al. one hundred and twenty-two), 
y^t th^ poptdar votQ stood Buchanan 1,838,169, Fremont 
et al. 2,215,498, being really against their candidate, on 
the popular vote, to the extent of 377,329 votes. This 
strange result was owing to the fact that, while all the 
Southern States voted for their candidate, and several 
Northern States as well, they were all by small majorities ; 
whereas such of the Northern States as voted for Fremont 



THE SOUTH AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 3O9 

and others did so by large majorities. Had they delayed 
the strike another four years, it would have been forever 
too late. 

So soon as the secret commenced to ooze out among 
the masses, it caused no little commotion in the Demo- 
cratic party itself, and when they came to name presiden- 
tial candidates in i860, while those in the secret boldly 
put forward John C. Breckenridge (who afterwards became 
a rebel general in their army), the more timid and doubt- 
ing named Stephen A. Douglas, while those who were 
yet more frightened at the prospect of coming events 
named Bell of Tennessee. The Republicans named 
Abraham Lincoln. The result showed one hundred and 
eighty electoral votes for Lincoln and one hundred and 
twenty-three for all the others (again the South voting 
solid against the Republican nominee), while the popular 
vote showed 1,866,352 for Lincoln, and 2,810,501 for all 
the others. The South by that time became so thoroughly 
identified with the Democratic party, and the Democratic 
party with the South, that, like man and wife, their interests 
were thenceforth inseparable, while the groomsman arid 
bridesmaid (fitly represented by European sovereignty 
and the Roman Catholic Church) stood at their sides, or 
close behind, tapping them on the back. 

And just here let us say, lest we may be misunderstood, 
that when we speak of the Catholic Church it is not by 
way of disparagement, so far as their religion is concerned, 
but only and purely as one of the instruments by which 
European sovereigns hope to work the downfall of this 
nation, or rather of the representative form of its govern- 
ment and the liberty of its press. Against the religious 
faith and the religious zeal of the Catholics we have not 
a word to say, though ourself a Protestant. History, as 
well as our own eyes and ears while travelling in Europe, 
has proven to us that with every ounce of corruption to 



3IO SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

be found in that Church there is a full pound of virtue, 
and, better than this, so far as we know, cannot be said 
of any other church organization. We cannot forget, nor 
overlook the facts, that while Tetzel was peddling indul- 
gences and Luther was thundering against them, thousands 
of Sisters of Charity (God bless them!) were waiting 
upon the sick and dying in Paris and elsewhere, and doing 
what they could to make life tolerable and death endur- 
able to thousands and tens of thousands; that while 
scores were being tortured and burned by the Spanish 
inquisition, thousands of faithful Catholic missionaries, in 
all parts of the world, were enlightening their fellow-men, 
easing their burdens of life, and pointing them to a hope 
beyond the grave. Nor can we overlook the fact that 
^///irreligious bodies have been just as bigoted and just 
as intolerant as the Catholics, whenever they have had 
the power and opportunity; that John Calvin and his fol- 
lowers burned Servetus, at Geneva, with just as little com- 
punction of conscience as the Catholics burned Huss at 
Constance; that Luther and his coadjutors granted to 
Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, a dispensation for 
polygamy, rather than lose his support, while Clement 
VII., Pope of Rome, refused a like dispensation to Henry 
VIII., King of England; that this same Henry, who was 
acknowledged at the time as the head of the Church of 
England, divorced two wives and beheaded two others ; 
and that even here, in our own New England, when the 
Puritans had absolute power, they ordered delicate Quaker 
women tied to a cart-tail and whipped upon the bare 
back, and others hung, for no other reason than that they 
chose to worship God in a different way from themselves. 
A somewhat careful study of the rise and progress of all 
religions, and of all religious sects, convinces us that 
bigotry, intolerance, and persecution are alike common to 



THE SOUTH AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 3II 

all zvJienever tJiey hold absolute power, and that in this re- 
spect the Catholics are 710 zvorse than others. 

And yet, while saying all this, no less in justice to our- 
self than to them, we must not overlook the fact that 
Catholicism is the religion of a large majority of the 
sovereigns and princes of Europe ; that absolutism (and 
consequent opposition to anything like a representative 
form of government, or the liberty of the press) is one of 
its cardinal principles of faith and practice ; that, being 
so largely supported by European sovereigns, it would 
naturally be disposed to aid them in any way within its 
power ; and that to aid them in overthrowing our repre- 
sentative form of government, and our boasted liberty of 
the press, would be no violation of their own cherished 
principles, but in exact accordance therewith. Hence in 
all our calculations as to influence and poiver, without 
having the least prejudice against the religion of the 
Cathohcs, we must invariably put them down as in favor 
of absolutism, and as only using, in this country, the 
name democracy (which means the reverse of absolu- 
tism) as a cloak to their real sentiments. Of course in 
this we only refer to the bishops, priests, and few educated 
laymen of the Catholic Church ; for, as to the great mass 
of its adherents, they merely follow the dictum of others, 
without knowing or caring about the meaning of names, 
and would vote under any name, or for anybody, if only 
told to do so by their church officials. 

It is a matter of public notoriety — indeed of public 
record — that, under the name of " Societies for the Propa- 
gation of the Faith," the sovereigns of Europe, and their 
more wealthy subjects, have sent, and are every year 
sending, large sums of money to this country. A single 
one of these societies at Lyons, France (as published in 
their own reports at the time), sent in this way ;^65,438 
in 1839; ^163,000 in 1840; ^177,000 in 1842; ^207,218 



312 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

in 1843 ; while correspondingly large sums were doubtless 
sent from Spain, Austria, and other European countries 
during the same years ; and from that time until the 
present every year. A portion of this was and is un- 
doubtedly contributed from the purest of religious motives; 
but by far the larger portion, only with the view to sub- 
vert our representative form of government and the liberty 
of the press. All these are matters of history, and as such 
come legitimately within the province of any historian, 
and of any reader, who, aside from religious or political 
prejudices, would carefully weigh facts with a view to 
arrive at undoubted conclusions. 

And thus, my friend (the reader), have we, by reciting 
historic facts, and through the processes of deduction and 
induction, shown you very plainly " How it comes that 
the South has not denounced the Democratic party for 
its perfidy in making promises which it never fulfilled;" 
and thus, my friend, I have, I think, fully and fairly an- 
swered your first inquiry. 




314 



CHAPTER XIX. 

11— HOW COMES IT THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, 
WITH SUCH A WEIGHT OF SIN UPON IT, CAN STILL BE 
KEPT ALIVE? 

TO answer this question, we would first direct your 
attention to the United States census returns for the 
years 1850, '60, '70, and '80. We only go back four de- 
cades, for from these we can draw correct conclusions 
just as well as if we commenced at an earlier date. 
These returns show that for the ten years preceding 1850 
there arrived in this country from Europe 1,713,251 per- 
sons; for the ten preceding i860, 2,598,214; for the ten 
preceding 1870, 2,491,209; and for the ten preceding 
1880, 2,742,137. Of those that came from Catholic 
countries, 95 out of every 100 went into the Democratic 
party. Of those that came from Germany and other 
Protestant countries, probably about one-half went into 
the Democratic party ; for even though they came from 
nominally Protestant countries, fully one-half of the emi- 
grants from those countries are Catholics. Of those who 
are Protestants in Europe, but few join the Democratic 
party after reaching this country. Estimating that one 
out of every five of these emigrants becomes a voter, and 
that 85 out of every 100 of these voters joined the Dem- 
ocratic party, we should have as added to that party 
from naturalization alone, for the ten years preceding 
1850, 290,753 votes ; for the ten preceding i860, 431,696 
votes; for the ten preceding 1870, 424,505 votes; and 
for the ten preceding 1880, 466,164 votes. Meanwhile, 
while these immense additions are being made from year 

315 



3l6 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

to year to the Democratic party from naturalization, it 
loses large numbers every year from increased civiliza- 
tion. The Whig party was, and the Republican party is, 
the party of enlightenment; and as foreigners, and es- 
pecially their children, become more enlightened as to 
the advantages of a republican or representative form of 
government — more and more enlightened as to^ the ad- 
vantages of a free press — they leave that party and go 
into the Republican ; or, what is more frequent, their 
children, having been educated in our free schools, learn 
to love freedom of thought as well as of action, and, on 
becoming of age, join the Republican party, and some of 
them join Protestant churches. But for this retroactive 
process, which is constantly going on, this country long ago 
would have been completely under foreign influence, and 
we never should have been permitted to have celebrated 
the one hundredth anniversary of American independence. 

Now let us take a retrospective view and see what has 
been the practical outcome of these two antagonistic 
principles. In 1852 the number of Democratic votes cast 
for President was 1,601,474; number of Whig votes, 
1,542,403; total, 3,143,877; population of the United 
States in 1850, 23,191,876. In i860, number of Repub- 
lican votes, 1,866,352; Democratic and all others, 2,810,- 
501; total, 4,676,853; population that year, 31,443,321. 
In 1872, number of Republican votes, 3,597,070; Demo- 
cratic, 2,834,078; total, 6,431,148; population for 1 870, 
38,558.371. In 1880, number of Republican votes, 4,450,- 
921; Democratic, 4,447,888 ; total, 8,898,809; population 
for 1880, 50,155.783. 

The immigration for the last few years has been ex- 
ceedingly large, reaching the enormous figures of 457,257 
for 1880, and 669,43 1 for 1881. Among these were 2,600 
Jews from Russia, of whom it is announced there are 
10,000 more to come soon, and for whom contract has 



SIN OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 31/ 

already been made with the Hamburg line of steamers. 
Of these it is safe to calculate that 95 out of every 100 
voters will go into the Democratic party. 

As showing the effect of the retroactive process here- 
tofore spoken of, whereby enlightenment turns Catholics 
into Protestants and Democrats into Republicans, it may 
be stated (as census returns show) that while in 1801 
there were in the two Protestant countries of Great Britain 
and the United States about 6,000,000 Roman Catholics 
to about 15,000,000 Protestants, or about one to two and 
a-half, in 1880 there were about 12,000,000 Catholics to 
about 74,000,000 Protestants, or about one to six. In 
using the word enlightenment in connection with the words 
Republican and Protestant, we would by no means have 
it inferred that all Democrats and all Catholics are igno- 
rant. In both are to be found men of the highest intel- 
ligence and of the most exalted character ; but these form 
the exception rather than the rule — the leading few, who 
have their own purposes to subserve, rather than the fol- 
lowing many, with whom party is madness only for the 
benefit of the few. 

Now, my friend (the reader), you can begin to see, can 
you not, why it is that the Democratic party, notwith- 
standing all its sins, has still been kept alive ? But yet 
there is one more item to be added to account for its con- 
tinued existence : namely, that it is not only supplied 
with recruits from Europe, but with money as well. We 
have heretofore shown from official sources how many 
hundreds of thousands of dollars have been, and are 
constantly being sent from Europe to this country to 
*' propagate'' the Catholic faith — which is, indeed, but 
another name and another way of propagating the Demo- 
cratic party — and but for the extreme secrecy of their 
movements, we might show just as plainly that other 
hundreds of thousands are sent here at every Presiden- 

37* 



3l8 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

tial election by European capitalists, European manu- 
facturers, and European sovereigns, with a view to in- 
fluence our elections. Bribery at elections being made 
a misdemeanor in nearly all the States, movements of 
this character have to be conducted with extreme se- 
crecy ; but that the thing has been done for the past forty 
years (ever since the inauguration of the protective system 
by Henry Clay), and is still being done, there is not 
a shadow of doubt; nor is there a doubt that this is 
another one of the reasons why the Democratic party 
is kept alive. A single Hartford convention killed the 
Federal party; a single set of pro-slavery resolutions, 
adopted by a National convention, killed the Whig party ; 
and the part which the Democratic party took in the late 
rebellion would have killed it so effectually that no res- 
urrection could have ever reached it, but for the support 
it has had, and still has, from European powers, through 
emigration and through the Catholic Church, and with 
the once avowed, and now no less steadily held, object 
of overthrowing our representative form of government, and 
oi destroying the liberty of our press. Thus, my friend (the 
reader), your second query is answered beyond, as we 
think, all possibility of successful contradiction. 




320 



CHAPTER XX. 

III.— FROM ALL YOUR STUDY OF HISTORY, WHAT DE- 
DUCTIONS DO YOU DRAW AS TO THE FINAL DE- 
CLINE AND FALL, IF SUCH A THING IS EVER TO 
BE, OF THIS REPUBLIC? 

TO the casual reader, the relationship that this question 
bears to ** Secrets of the Late Rebellion, now Re- 
vealed FOR THE First Time," may seem very obscure, 
but to our mind, that sees the end from the beginning, 
the relationship seems very close, as our readers will also 
see, we think, before we close the answer. 

Patrick Henry, in one of his outbursts of eloquence, 
said he "knew of no way to judge of the future save by 
the past." Taking this as our guide, let us inquire some- 
what into the history of former republics, and see if we 
cannot gather therefrom some probabilities as to the 
future of our own, and some light by which to guide our 
own footsteps meanwhile. Our plan and limited space 
will only permit us to take a bird's-eye view of four — 
Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Rome — but even from these 
alone we may learn some useful lessons. 

The republic of Athens came into existence immedi- 
ately after the voluntary death of King Codrus, about 
1068 years before Christ. Codrus having been made to 
believe, through an oracle, that if he sacrificed his own 
life, his country would be victorious over the Heraclidae, 
with whom they were then engaged in war, disguised 
himself as a peasant, and, purposely quarreUing with a 
soldier of the hostile army, procured the death he wished. 
His sons, Medon and Nileus, disputed the succession to 

V 321 



322 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the crown ; and the Athenians, taking advantage of this 
dispute, determined to set aside the crown altogether, 
and thenceforth have a representative or republican 
form of government. Hence arose the Athenian Re- 
public. Though they abolished the title of king, out 
of the high regard they had for Codrus, they appointed 
his son Medon chief magistrate for life, and even made 
the office hereditary, so that for three hundred and 
thirty-one years thereafter the chief magistrate con- 
tinued in that family. They then abolished the perpetual 
archonship, and made the tenure of the office ten years. 
This term they reduced erelong to one year, and, instead 
of one archon or chief magistrate, appointed nine, with 
equal authority. Meanwhile their government became 
so purely democratic as to become utterly despotic, and 
the tyranny of the mob was found to be more oppressive 
than the restraints of a single ruler. Then followed the 
laws of Draco, which, because of their severity, were said 
to have been " written in blood." He made no distinc- 
tion of offences, but punished all equally with death. He 
weakened the authority of the Areopagus, and instituted 
a new tribunal, in which judges were given almost unlim- 
ited power, and virtually made brutes. The severity of 
his laws defeated their own object. 

Such was the condition of things when the great law- 
maker, Solon, appeared on the stage, five hundred and 
ninety-four years before Christ. The laws which he 
framed and gave the Athenians were not, as he said 
himself, " the best possible, but the best which the Athe- 
nians were capable of receiving." To the rich he gave 
offices and dignities ; to the poor he gave the right of 
suffiage, whereby in the framing of laws, the election of 
magistrates, the making of war or peace, the forming of 
treaties and alliances, and in all that regarded either re- 
ligious or civil policy, they should have an equal voice 



FINAL DECLINE OF THIS REPUBLIC. 323 

with the rich, and, being much the greater in number, 
their class could overbalance the other three, though out 
of their class could no nomination be made to any office 
of honor or profit. A senate of four hundred members 
held an intermediate place between office-holders and 
the people, and served as a restraint upon both. The 
arbitrary power of the judges, as established by Draco, 
Solon restrained, and made the court of Areopagus the 
chief judicial tribunal, and gave it also a tutorial power 
over all the youth of the republic. Instead of having an 
egotistical, half-educated state school superintendent to 
do such duty (as sometimes found in this country), this 
court appointed masters and governors for the youth, and 
superintended their education. The Areopagus also in- 
quired into the life and morals of all who held offices in 
the state, and such as could not stand the scrutiny were 
not only incapacitated for employ, but declared infamous. 
His laws also prohibited all imprisonment for debt, and 
contained many other provisions in which legislators 
have made no improvement during the nearly two thou- 
sand five hundred years that have passed since then. 

Notwithstanding the good laws of Solon, then, as now, 
there were found men to take advantage of their pro- 
visions to gratify their own private hates. Thus, Solon's 
laws allowed popular action for most offences — regarding 
all offences as against the " peace and dignity of the 
state " — as we do now ; but in many cases advantage was 
taken of this by bad men to make the most calumnious 
accusations against men whose character until then had 
stood even above suspicion. So advantage was frequently 
taken of the law of ostracism (which was only meant for 
good), whereby some of their very best men were ban- 
ished from the state. Thus, when an ignorant citizen 
was about to cast his vote for the ostracism of Aristides, 
he was asked by Aristides himself, who chanced to be 



324 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

passing by at the moment, and who was unknown toy 
him: 

" Why, what harm, my friend, has Aristides done to 
you?" 

" None in the world," replied he ; " but I hate to hear 
everybody call him the ' Just' " 

Thucydides also, from whom Athens had received the 
most eminent services, was in like manner banished by . 
ostracism ; as likewise were Miltiades, Cimon, Themis- 
tocles, Phocion, and many other of their most eminent 
men. What was meant, too, for religious freedom was 
made to subserve (by those who temporarily had the 
power) the purposes of religious bigotry, tyranny, and 
persecution, until even the renowned philosopher, Soc- 
rates, was made to drink the fatal hemlock. 

While the great majority of Athenians were entirely 
satisfied with their form of government; while the masses 
were equally jealous of their liberty, because liberty was 
equally necessary to each for the enjoyment of his favor- 
ite scheme of life ; yet there were those inside of the 
republic, as well as outside, who did not like a republican 
form of government, and who were all the while watch- 
ing for an opportunity to overthrow it. Among these 
was Pisistratus, a man of large wealth, splendid talents, 
and of great popularity. He aspired to sovereign power, 
and by his artifices came so near in obtaining it, that 
Solon, disgusted at the want of patriotism among his 
countrymen, and unable to witness its degradation, bade 
adieu to Athens, and died in voluntary exile. He — even 
he, the great and good Solon — was made to feel what it 
was to be " a man without a country !' and chose to die in 
exile rather than to remain in his native land, or even to 
look upon it again in a state of degradation. If the time 
should ever come (and God only knows how soon it may 
come !) when not only one but scores, yea, hundreds, of 



FINAL DECLINE OF THIS REPUBLIC. 325 

American Solons should be wandering throughout the 
world, zvithout a home and zvithoiit a country, because of 
the destruction of our representative form of government 
by European jealousy and Catholic bigotry, then, if never 
before, they and all others will fully understand some- 
thing oi the 7iatural outgrowth of the Democratic party 
of this country, of which the late rebellion was the first 
act in the drama, and of which its secret workings only 
represented the machinations of a hundred Pisistratuses ! 

But though Pisistratus thus usurped power, and for a 
while played the sovereign, he was unable to retain it 
long. Megacles and Lycurgus, the chiefs of the Alc- 
maeonidae, gained at length so much strength as to attack 
and expel the usurper from Athens. By a stratagem he 
again secured power, and, on dying, bequeathed the 
crown to his sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, but erelong 
Hipparchus was killed, and Hippias dethroned, and once 
again the republic prevailed, and statues were erected to 
the honor of Harmodius and Aristogiton as the authors 
of their country's deliverance from tyranny. 

From thenceforth there was almost a constant warfare 
between the political parties or factions of the republic, 
while jealous eyes outside were consequently watching 
an opportunity for its destruction. Ambitious demagogues 
were constantly using the people as their tools, but scarcely 
would one obtain the chief magistracy until another 
would pull him down — if not by a vote of the people, 
then by faction or by assassination. Meanwhile Hippias, 
who had been dethroned, sought aid from the king of 
Persia to reinstate him, and thus brought a long and 
bloody war upon his own country. In this war were fought 
the renowned battles of Marathon, Salamis, Platese, and 
Mycale, and the Greeks came off victorious, but at a most 
fearful sacrifice of treasure and life. After this followed 
the disunion among the several Grecian states — the seces- 
28 



326 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

sion of some — the coldness and indifference of others ; 
and though the brilliant administrations of Cimon and 
Pericles seemed to revive the republic for awhile, it was 
evident to all that the seeds of death were fast germinating 
and would bring forth fruit erelong. The Persian king, 
and the sovereigns of other surrounding countries, had 
long felt deep jealousy of the Athenian Republic, and, 
when an excuse came for attacking it, they were not 
backward in availing themselves of the opportunity. For- 
tunately for the Athenian Republic the attack made upon 
them by Persia had the effect to bring the whole power 
of the Spartan Republic to their aid, which, with such 
other aid as they received from minor states of Greece, 
enabled them to defeat the Persians in the end and main- 
tain their own independence. 

But a worse fate awaited them — namely, a fight among 
themselves. The mutual jealousies that had long existed 
between Athens and Sparta broke out afresh, and soon 
terminated in an open war between the two republics, 
and most of the minor states of Greece took a part in the 
quarrel. The first declaration of hostilities, however, was 
compromised before they came to actual conflict ; but it 
proved to be only a smouldering, and not an extinguish- 
ment, of the fire that had long burned in the breast of 
each — a fire that afterwards broke forth in what was known 
as the " Peloponnesian war," and lasted twenty-eight 
years. Our plan and space will not permit any details of 
this. A history of the first twenty-two years of the war 
was admirably written by Thucydides, and of the last six 
years by Xenophon, to whom we must refer the reader 
who would know its particulars. Suffice it to say here 
that dunng this long internecine war each achieved vic- 
tories and each suffered defeats. At one time the Spartans 
so reduced Athens as to make an entire change in its 
constitution. The republic was abolished and thirty 



FINAL DECLINE OF THIS REPUBLIC. 32/ 

governors, or, as the Greek historians style them, "thirty 
tyrants'' were substituted, whose power seems to have 
been absolute, unless in so far as each was restrained by 
the equally arbitrary will of his colleagues. So fearful 
and terrible was their rule, that Xenophon thinks "a 
greater number of Athenian citizens lost their lives by the 
sentence of these tyrants, in the short space of eight 
months, than had fallen in the whole twenty-eight years 
of the Peloponnesian war." Hundreds of the most emi- 
nent of the Athenian families left their country in despair, 
and what remained were for a time awed into silence, 
and dumb with consternation. 

And just here we may pause to say that precisely the 
same kind of rule, and the same kind of results, would 
have been witnessed in this country, had the rebellion, by 
the aid of the Democratic party, succeeded in capturing 
Washington and in establishing their rule over this coun- 
try. It is one of the " Secrets of the Late Rebellion, 
NOW Revealed for the First Time" (and our information 
comes from one who was behind the scenes and knew all 
about it, and the first sixteen chapters of this volume En- 
tirely confirm this opinion), that behind President Davis 
and behind General Lee stood a body of desperate men, 
who, at one single sweep, would have wiped them off the 
chess-board and put others in their stead, had they shown 
the least considerate humanity in dealing with Northern 
men, in case the rebellion had succeeded. Not Abraham 
Lincoln alone would have fallen at the hands of the as- 
sassin or hangman, but thousands of others throughout 
the North would have suffered a like fate, until the rule 
of the "thirty tyrants " in Athens would have been con- 
sidered but child's play in comparison with the rule of 
the more than three hundred tyrants of this republic. 
Then would have been witnessed here, as there, thousands 
of the most eminent of American families leaving their 



328 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

country in despair — wandering they knew not whither — < 
without a home ^ and without a country ! Abraham Lincoln's 
assassination was indeed done by a half-crazed Southern 
rebel; but who can doubt, after reading the secrets re- 
vealed in the foregoing pages, that the frenzy that fired 
Booth's brain, and the nerve that enabled him to fire the 
deadly shot, came as directly from the Democratic party, 
as a party, as that the pistol itself was purchased by a 
Democratic partisan. All these facts go hand-in-hand, 
and there is no separating one from the others. 

But we have already occupied much more of time and 
space on the Athenian Republic than we had intended. 
We can only say, in conclusion, that, after the reign of 
the " thirty tyrants," its fortunes were up and down — 
oftener down than up — until the battle of Chaeronea, 
which occurred in the year 338 before Christ, when the 
liberties of Greece were made to yield finally and forever 
to the stronger arm of the Macedonian. The Athenian 
Republic had existed after a fashion — and, indeed, much 
of the time it was only ** after a fashion " — for seven hun- 
dred and thirty years ; and when it fell, there was not so 
much as an empty shell left. Its internal dissensions, 
more than anything else, had eaten out its vitals; the 
jealousy of surrounding monarchies had been to it a 
constant source of danger, and several times a source of 
great disaster; while for fully one-half of the seven hun- 
dren and thirty years it was rather a government of 
tyranny than of liberty to those who lived under it. 




330 



CHAPTER XXI. 

OF SPARTA AND ITS LESSONS. 

SPARTA was built by Lacedaemon as early as 1487 
years before Christ; but it did not become a republic 
until Lycurgus remodelled its laws, eight hundred and 
eighty-four years before Christ. Though a representative 
form of government, and therefore a republic, yet it was 
so different from any other government that ever existed 
before or since, it may well be called unique, singular, sui 
ge7ieris. Its citizens, for instance, ate at public tables ; the 
children were regarded as belonging to the state rather 
than to parents ; its money was made of iron and of such 
weight that no one man could carry a hundred dollars. 
Thus, and in other ways, the accumulation of wealth was 
discouraged — while instruction in the art of war was 
made pastime — meat, drink, and sleep, as it were, to all its 
male inhabitants. The labor of its farms, of its shops, 
of its merchants even, was all done by slaves ; while the 
administration of government, the learning how to fight, 
and fighting, seems to have been the principal, if not the 
only, employment of its free citizens. Though existing 
at the same time with the Athenian Republic, and within 
one hundred and eighty-four years as old, the two gov- 
ernments were in no sense a type of each other. The 
Athenian found in his taste for pleasure constant employ- 
ment ; the Spartan's taste was only for war. The arts of 
Athens met with the highest encouragement ; at Sparta, 
scarcely none at all. At Athens the luxury of the rich 
constantly employed the industry of the poor ; at Sparta, 

331 



332 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

luxury was regarded as almost criminal, and he who in- 
dulged in it was regarded with contempt, if not with 
execration. The sciences were also cultivated by Athe- 
nians with the same ardor as the arts ; while Spartans 
cared nothing for science, except so far as it contributed 
to the efficiency of warfare. As another, in contrasting 
the two republics, has very aptly put it, "Sparta was 
altogether a military establishment ; every other art was 
prohibited, industry among individuals was unknown, and 
domestic economy unnecessary — for all was in common. 
The Lacedaemonians were active only when at war. In 
peace, their manner of life was languid, uniform, indolent, 
and insipid. Taught to consider war as the sole honor- 
able or manly occupation, they contracted a fierce and 
ferocious turn of mind, which distinguished them from 
all the other states of Greece. Despising the arts them- 
selves, they despised all who cultivated them. Their 
constitution was fitted to form a small, a brave, and an 
independent state; but had no tendency to produce a 
great, a polished, or a conquering people." 

Between our own and a republic so peculiarly consti- 
tuted, we can hardly make comparisons; and yet we find, 
even in that, some features like in our own. Lysander was 
not only a great general, but, as Plutarch calls him, he 
was d^fox as well. Richelieu, when told that his enemies 
called him a fox, said : 

" Fox ! — Well, I like the nickname ! What did Plutarch 
say of the Greek Lysander ? " 

Joseph. I forget. 

Richelieu. That where the lion's skin fell short, he eked 
it out with the fox's ! A great statesman, Joseph, that 
same Lysander ! " 

Martin Van Buren, both before and after he became 
President of the United States, was called a fox^ because 
of his great slyness and shrewdness in pulling the wires 



OF SPARTA AND ITS LESSONS. 333 

for the Democratic party. He denounced that party 
before he died, however, and allowed himself to be run 
against their regular candidate for the Presidency; and, 
were he alive to-day, and knew of the secrets which this 
volume discloses, no man in the United States would be 
more free in denouncing that party for the p^rt it took in 
the rebellion^ and for the part it is still taking in helping 
Europeans in their designs to overthrow this government 
and the freedom of the press, than Martin Van Buren. 

This republic, like that of Athens, had its ending with 
the battle of Chceronea,'B.c. 338, after which the all-conquer- 
ing Philip took possession of it and of all the states of 
Greece. The republic had existed after a fashion (for 
here, as at Athens, it was only " after a fashion " part of 
the time) through a period of five hundred and forty-six 
years ; but finally died from the ambition of those within 
and the jealousy of those without. 

Thebes was the last of the Grecian republics, but for a 
time shone with as much brilliancy as either of the others. 
It had its origin from fortuitous circumstances rather than 
from the genius of any lawmaker; but it produced and 
nurtured legislators as wise as Solon or Lycurgus, and 
soldiers as brave and as brilliant as Pericles or Lysander. 
When Athens and Sparta were visibly tending to decline, 
Thebes suddenly rose to a degree of splendor which 
eclipsed all her sister and contemporary states. 

Long before b. c. 382, at which time the citadel of 
Thebes was seized by the Spartans, the government of 
the Thebans was called republican, but it was rather so 
in name than in fact. The oligarchic party at Thebes, 
corresponding with the Democratic party of this country, 
were all the while aiming at the establishment of an oli- 
garchy, while the patriotic supporters of liberty and inde- 
pendence were just as determined not only to maintain 
the republic, but to make it so in fact as well as in name. 



334 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

The last-named party of Thebes corresponded precisely 
with the Republican party of this country. When the 
contention between these two parties was at fever heat, 
it happened that Phoebidas, a Lacedaemonian general, was 
sent with an army to punish the people of Olynthus, a 
Thracian city, for an alleged infraction of a treaty of 
peace formed not long before. While Phoebidas was on 
this expedition, Leontiades, the head of the oligarchic 
party at Thebes, prevailed on him to second the attempts of 
his party against the liberties of their country. The iSpar- 
tan general yielded to the suggestion, and, while the un- 
suspecting Thebans were celebrating the festival of Ceres, 
Phoebidas marched his army into the city and took pos- 
session of their citadel. When the republicans of Thebes 
protested against this, the Spartans acknowledged it an 
act of treason in Leontiades to have thus betrayed his 
country, and they reprobated the conduct of Phoebidas 
in giving his aid to a measure which was a direct infrac- 
tion of a national treaty; but being now masters of 
Thebes, they did not choose to abandon their acquisition. 

If through the influence and aid of Lord John Brew- 
erton (the particulars of which are given in the fifth 
chapter of this volume) and others like him, the heads, 
the Leontiadeses, of the Democratic party of this 
country, could have betrayed our government into the 
hands of Great Britain, and thereby pleased every other 
kingly government of Europe, every Englishman would 
have acknowledged that somebody had played the traitor, 
and that it constituted not only a direct infraction of the 
treaty between their government and ours, but an infrac- 
tion of the law of nations as well ; yet, like the Spar- 
tans, they would have been unequal to the conflict be- 
tween virtue and self-interest, and, like them, would have 
replied, Now that we have the country, we '11 keep it ! 

But though the " mills of the gods grind slowly, they 



OF SPARTA AND ITS LESSONS. 335 

grind exceeding fine," and erelong the republicans of 
Thebes, headed by the brave Pelopidas, and seconded by 
the no less brave Epaminondas, shook off the Spartan 
yoke — shook off the oligarchy — and reestablished a re- 
publican form of government, and from thenceforth the 
Theban Republic went forward in a career of glory equal 
to anything that Athens or Sparta could ever boast. 
The battle of Leiictra, in which six thousand Thebans, 
commanded by Epaminondas, entirely defeated twenty- 
five thousand Lacedaemonians, leaving four thousand, 
with their chief, Cleombrotus, dead upon the field, was 
but the beginning o'f a series of actions all of which re- 
flected upon Thebes the highest glory. We have not 
room to relate these in detail, but one incident in the life 
of Epaminondas — at its close — we cannot omit. The full 
particulars of the incident may be found in Xenophon and 
Diodorus, but its gist is about as follows : At the battle 
of Mantinea, Epaminondas, too rashly pursuing his suc- 
cess, had advanced beyond the line of his troops, when, 
the enemy rallying, he was exposed to a whole shower 
of darts, and fell, pierced with numberless wounds. " His 
faithful Thebans," says Professor Tytler, " found means to 
rescue his body while life yet remained, and to bring him 
to his tent. A javelin stuck fast in his breast, and his 
physician declared that on extracting it he would imme- 
diately expire. In this extremity, breathless and fainting, 
while his friends stood weeping around him, he first in- 
quired what had become of his shield, and being told that 
it was safe, he beckoned to have it brought to him, and 
kissed it. He then asked which side had gained the vic- 
tory, and being told it was the Thebans, * Then,' said he, 
' all is well.* While some of his friends were lamenting 
his untimely fall, and regretting that he had left no chil- 
dren to perpetuate his memory, * Yes,' said he, * I have 
left two fair daughters, Leuctra and Mantinea' (the names 



336 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

of battle-fields) — * these will perpetuate my memory ; * so 
saying, with his own hands he drew forth the javelin from 
his breast, and instantly expired." 

If the republic at that moment could have died with 
Epaminondas, it would have gone out in a blaze of glory ; 
but, alas ! alas ! it yet contained traitors in its own 
bosom, and was yet to reap the fruits of treason. 

Philip, King of Macedon, determined to subvert the 
liberties of all the Grecian republics. To him, as to Eu- 
ropean sovereigns of to-day, a representative form of gov- 
ernment was hateful, as would have been the liberty of 
the press, had there been a press in those days. It was 
one of his favorite maxims that " no fortification was im- 
pregnable into which a mule could make its way with a 
bag of money I' as it was a maxim with the first Napoleon 
that " every man has his price'* In pursuance of this 
policy, Philip had his bribed emissaries in Thebes, as he 
had at Athens and Sparta. In Athens he had in his pay 
no less a man than -^schines, the great orator, and Aris- 
todemus and Neoptolemus, the two great comedians — all 
of whom were men of the highest influence in the public 
assemblies. 

With such men at the capitals of the three largest re- 
publics — all constantly declaring themselves to be the 
'' stanchest of democrats'' — it was only a question of time 
with Philip when he should have the republics within his 
grasp. Demosthenes thundered and lightened worse 
than the natural elements. His " Philippics " rolled over 
the heads and hearts of the people, and found responsive 
echoes in thousands of breasts; but the still, small voice 
of Philip's gold in the pockets of leading loud-mouthed 
so-called Democrats had more influence than all the thun- 
ders of a Demosthenes. Philip's far-reaching plan was 
first to introduce treachery in the heart of each republic, 
and then set them at variance with each other, that his 



OF SPARTA AND ITS LESSONS. 33/ 

alliance might be courted and an opportunity furnished 
for introducing Macedonian troops into Greece. He had 
not long to wait for the maturing of his plans. The 
Phocians, instead of paying a fine inflicted upon them by 
the Amphictyonic Council (corresponding to our Con- 
gress), seized the temple of Apollo at Delphos, with all 
its treasures. This set the republics at war with each 
other — some siding with the Council and some with the 
Phocians. At length the Thessalians implored Philip's 
assistance against their tyrant, Lycophron, whose govern- 
ment they felt to be intolerable. The tyrant sought aid 
of the Phocians to support him against his own subjects. 
They responded to Lycophron, and Philip, with an alac- 
rity that knew no precedent, responded to the people. 
The result of all this was that Philip obtained a strong 
foothold in Greece, the very thing he had so long sought 
through his paid emissaries. This advantage Philip fol- 
lowed up with the keen scent and persistence of a blood- 
hound, and although Demosthenes still continued to thun- 
der against him, Philip's gold in the pockets of sordid 
ignorance, under the guise of democratic patriots, over- 
balanced the warnings of eloquence, and thus matters 
went on, step by step, until the battle of Chseronea, when, 
at one fell swoop, not only the republic of Thebes, but all 
the other republics and states of Greece, fell into the 
hands of Philip. 

Can you not see, my friend (the reader), in all this 
some striking points of resemblance between the rise, 
progress, and fall of the Theban Republic, and the rise, 
progress, and what threatened to be the fall of our own 
government in the late rebellion ? 

According to European notions, we had a sort of re- 
public, a sort of representative form of government, prior 
to 1776; but it was rather an oligarchy than a repub- 
lic, and Washington, Adams, John Hancock, and others, 
29 W 



33^ SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

determined to have a real republic or die in the attempt. 
Seven years of terrible struggle and fearful sacrifice 
brought their wishes to a successful issue. From 1783 
until 1822 the course of this republic was one blaze of 
glory, equal to anything that Thebes could ever boast. 
Meanwhile the jealous eyes of many European Philips 
had been looking on, and finally a Congress at Vienna, 
in 1822, entered into a solemn treaty with each other 
(two of the articles of which we have heretofore quoted) 
that representative governments, and the liberty of the 
press, were " incompatible " (that is the word) with 
** monarchical principles," and therefore ought to be 
ABOLISHED. In pursuance of this resolve the Philips of 
Europe began to send their gold into this country, of 
which no less than ;^6i 2,656 were sent from a single city 
of France (Lyons) in four years, as we have heretofore 
shown from their own published reports. True, this was 
but a drop in the bucket, but it shows that the drops 
came from thick-lipped vials, and consequently were 
very large drops. Among the contributions made about 
that time, it was announced, with a great flourish of 
trumpets and as greatly to his credit, that the Emperor 
of Austria had contributed twenty thousand francs to 
" The Society for the Propagation of the Faith." For 
the propagation of what? Of th^ faith / God save the 
mark! Had the item read, For the propagation of the 
Democratic party, and, through it, monarchical princi- 
ples, it would, in our humble judgment, have been nearer 
the truth. Of course we do not know — no one ever can 
know — what proportion of the money contributed in 
Europe and sent to this country (nominally to propagate 
the faith of the Catholic Church) went into the hands of 
State and National Democratic Executive Committees ; 
but this we do know, as well as we know any conclusion 
drawn from known facts by deduction, that the money so 



OF SPARTA AND ITS LESSONS. 339 

sent had for its ultimate object (no matter into whose 
hands it first fell) more the destruction of the representative 
form of this government, and the liberty of the press, than 
the propagation of any religious faith. 

And let us pause a moment just here to say, that the 
process of investigation and of reasoning by which we 
arrive at the above conclusion, and at other conclusions 
heretofore announced, is very near to certainty, nor is it at 
all mystical. As Professor Huxley very aptly says, when 
writing of the results of induction and deduction, " The 
vast results obtained by science are won by no mystical 
faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which 
are practised by every one of us in the humblest and 
meanest Avalks of life. A detective policeman discovers 
a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a mental 
process identical with that by which Cuvier restored the 
extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their 
bones. Nor does that process of induction and deduction 
by which a lady, finding a stain of a particular kind upon 
her dress, concludes that somebody has upset the ink- 
stand thereon, differ in any way from that by which 
Adams and Leverrier discovered a new planet. The 
man of science, in fact, simply uses with scrupulous ex- 
actness the methods which we all habitually and at 
every moment use carelessly." 

Though our present treatise is on history rather than 
on science, we have used the facts which have fallen in 
our way from a somewhat extensive reading and study 
of history with as much "scrupulous exactness" as though 
we had been writing upon science, and we feel within our 
own breast that the conclusions reached are very near, 
if not a dead, certainty. We did not make the facts that 
we have used. They have been parts of current history 
from time to time, extending through a period of nearly 
three thousand years. We have simply put the facts in 



340 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

logical form — in the form of proposition and proof — and 
then drawn therefrom such inferences as seemed natural 
and inevitable. Politicians will say, we know, that our 
conclusions are the result of preconceived opinions; 
bigots in religion will say that our conclusions are 
founded upon prejudice; but neither the one nor the 
other will be true. Take the same facts, and we defy 
any logician or rhetorician in the world to reach different 
conclusions, if honest with his own conscience before 
God. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 

HAVING more than consumed the space allotted for 
this volume, we have neither room nor time left in 
which to write of the Roman Republic as its importance 
demands, and as indeed we should gladly have written. 
And yet we confess there is not, or ought not to be, any 
necessity for adding another word. If the lessons taught 
us from what we have learned of the three preceding re- 
publics have not opened our eyes to the dangerous ten- 
dencies of the Democratic party as a party ; if we are 
not already convinced that the leaders of that party, and 
those who stand behind the scenes to prompt the leaders 
and furnish them with the " sinews of war," in the shape 
of European gold, have for their ultimate object the 
setting aside of our represe^itative form of government and 
the destruction of the liberty of our press^ then we would 
not be convinced though one arose from the dead. 

Why, then, need we add a word about the founding of 
the Roman Republic, five hundred and ten years before 
Christ; why tell of the law, then for the first time enacted 
by the Senate, that any citizen who had been condemned 
to death by a magistrate, or even to banishment, or cor- 
poral punishment, should have the right of an appeal to 
the people before the sentence went into effect; why tell 
of the wars in which the republic was thenceforth en- 
gaged, and how gloriously the people sustained the 
honor of the republic; why tell how the people were 
afterwards betrayed by their rulers, and made to suffer 

343 



344 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

the most intolerable hardships until they obtained the 
privilege of electing tribunes ; why tell of the struggles 
that these tribunes of the people had with rulers chosen 
by the aristocracy for many, many years in maintaining 
for the people the rights for which they had made im- 
mense sacrifice of life, and which they valued so highly ; 
why tell — as it would take an entire volume to tell — how 
corruptions crept, from time to time, into the heart of 
the republic, how ambition took the place of patriotism, 
how the leaders in the provinces were watching with 
jealous eyes those at Rome and vice versa^ how Caesar 
finally "passed the Rubicon," how he seized the govern- 
ment, how he attempted to put on a crown, and in the 
attempt lost both the crown and his life; and how, when 
great Caesar fell, fell the republic, with a crash that was 
heard to the uttermost ends of the earth? If we were 
to tell all this with the precision of a Montesquieu, or 
with as much display of learning as an Abbe de Vertot, 
there could only be gathered therefrom precisely the 
same lessons as we have already learned from the rise, 
progress, decline, and downfall of the three Grecian re- 
publics. 

And thus, my friend (the reader), we are finally brought 
face to face to the last clause of your third question, as 
to What is to be the final end of this republic ? 

The shortest answer would be. We don't know, and 
then stop right there ; but this would not be satisfactory 
to you. The next shortest answer will be that our repub- 
lic will, in all human probability, follow the fate of the 
Grecian and Roman republics, and that it is only a ques- 
tion of time when that shall be. We know that such a 
confession is humiliating to one's pride, and that we 
would all much rather believe, as it is usual for Fourth of 
July orators to say, that ** this republic is to last forever T* 



THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 345 

but alas ! alas ! for human vanity, it is only too true that 
** history but repeats itself! " 

But, allowing this answer to be the correct one, it by 
no means lessens your and my responsibility ; for whether 
that end comes in twenty years, or two hundred years, 
or two thousand years, depends altogether upon Americans 
themselves. There are good, and true, and intelligent 
men in every political party, as there are good, and true, 
and intelligent men in every religious organization. While 
we conscientiously believe that the tendency of the Demo- 
cratic party to be just as we have repeatedly stated; and 
while we as conscientiously believe that the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, as a church, is being made use of by European 
sovereigns, just as we have repeatedly stated; yet we be- 
lieve, indeed, we know, that both in that party and in that 
church are as good men, as true men, and as intelligent men 
as are to be found in any party or in any church on earth ; 
and if these will but unite with the good, and true, and 
intelligent of other parties and of other churches, the 
representative form of this government, and consequently 
its liberties, and the liberty of its press, may be preserved 
yet for many scores of years, if not for many centuries. 
It is no mere figure of speech to say that " the price of 
liberty is eternal vigilance^ Like panthers crouching and 
waiting for their prey, the enemies of this government 
are all the while on the watch. They have their paid 
emissaries not only at Washington, but at every State 
capital, just as Philip of Macedon had among the repub- 
lics of Greece. A lack of vigilance upon the part of pa- 
triots may, at any one of our national elections, put the 
general government into their hands. This once in their 
hands, they will find a way, or make one, as we have here- 
tofore said, to hold it for all time to come ; for every 
crowned head of Europe would at once, openly or se- 
cretly, rally to their support. Then would come a weep- 



34^ SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

ing, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, but, alas, it 
would be too late ! Then would be found Americans in 
all parts of the world without a home and without a coun- 
try, but their regrets, alas ! would bring back neither. 
There are Greeks and Romans to-day, as there were 
Greeks and Romans two thousand and three thousand 
years ago ; but it blurs the eye to see (as we have seen in 
their own lands), and it sickens the heart to think (as any 
intelligent man may think) of, the difference between a cit- 
izen of Greece and of Rome to-day and of the citizen who 
lived when they were republics ! Pigmies and giants are 
the only two English words we have to express such dif- 
ference ; but to one who has seen and felt the difference, 
while travelling through their own lands, these words fail 
utterly to convey a true conception of the real difference 
which exists. 

And now, my good friend (the reader), I must bid you 
farewell. We have travelled a long way together — longer, 
perhaps, than has occurred to you as we have steadily 
pursued our course. Starting in our own times, and with 
events in some of which we have ourselves taken part, 
we have slowly ascended the river of time until we reached 
a point (the beginning of the Athenian Republic) nearly 
three thousand years from where we started. Then, re- 
tracing our way, we slowly descended the river, stopping 
long enough to gather a few grains of wheat at one place, 
a few grains of rye at another, a few grains of corn at 
another, and so on, and on, until we have got back to 
where we started. In the beginning of our journey we 
peeped into some dark places — places into which the light 
of history never before had shone, but which, from this 
time forth, will be as well known as any other facts of the 
great rebellion. 

All that I have done for you, in all these journeyings, 
is, at near the close of our pilgrimage, to select out the 



THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 34/ 

different kinds of grain, arrange them in form of proposi- 
tion arid proof, just as any other logician or rhetorician 
might have done, and then point out to you that, if we 
would be profited by these grains (of information), picked 
up on the way, and treat them in a certain manner, they 
would yield wholesome bread and sustain life (the life of 
our republic) for many years to come ; whereas, treated 
in another way, these same grains would only make the 
vilest of whiskey, which, used wrongfully, could only lead 
to misery and final death here and eternal death here- 
after. In some things, my friend (the reader), your 
knowledge is far beyond mine ; in others, mine may be 
greater than yours, because of chances of information 
which happened to come in my way instead of coming 
in yours. While glad to learn anything I can from you, 
I have only done my duty, for which I claim no credit — 
only done as I would wish to be done by — in communi- 
cating to you such facts, and the unmistakable inference 
from such facts, as were secrets with others until they 
came to me, and secrets with me until I now communi- 
cate them to you, and through you and the printed page 
to the rest of the world. 

And now, what is your and my duty in the premises ? 
Is it to sit with folded hands and see our glorious republic 
drift on and on until it falls into the hands of the Dem- 
ocratic party, and then into the hands of European 
sovereigns, and then is blotted out in one eternal night ? 
Or shall we not rather (as Gough so graphically pictures 
in one of his inimitable lectures) cry aloud to those whom 
we see carelessly sailing on the river of Time — the Niag- 
ara River, — only a little way above the rapids, and within 
plain hearing of the thundering of the all-devouring 
falls — ''Young men, ahoy there \ the rapids are below you!'* 
And if they should at first respond with a " Ha ! ha ! we 
will laugh and quaff; all things delight us ; what care we 



348 SECRETS OF THE LATE REBELLION. 

for the future ? " — then to cry again, still louder than be- 
fore, "Beware! Beware! The rapids are below you!" 
and if, after all this, they still go shrieking, howling, blas- 
pheming over the falls of the river of Time, your skirts 
and mine will be free of their blood. 

Or, to change the metaphor, my friend, let you and I 
and all of us who love a representative form of govern- 
ment, who love the freedom of the press, who love our 
own glorious republic — let us, whenever we see the 
" ship of state " floundering in the breakers and liable to 
be engulphed by the angry waves of passion, hate, and 
self-interest, imitate the example of our blessed Saviour, 
and cry aloud, " Peace ; be still ! " and though we may 
not, like Him, calm the waves by miraculous power, yet, 
if with our cry we put our shoulders firmly together, and 
pull at the same end of the rope, all of us who really 
love the republic — the honest Democrat with the honest 
Republican, the honest Catholic with the honest Protest- 
ant — we and our descendants may save the " ship of state" 
from sinking, at least for many years, if not for many 
centuries to come. And may God bless and prosper 
every such united effort for the saving of our glorious 
republic i 



THE end. 



VALUABLE AND INTERESTING WORKS 

FOR 

Public and Private Libraries^ 

PUBLISHED BY 

CROMBARGAR & CO., Philadelphia. 



Any of the following works will be sent by mail, postage 
prepaid, on receipt of price. Letters, plainly and simply 
addressed Crombargar & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia, 

will always reach us. 

« ■ « 

Travels in the Holy Land, Syria, Asia Minor, and Turkey. 

I vol., crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, over 500 pages. Well 
Illustrated. Price, ^2.00. 

This work accurately describes the countries through which " THE 
Author" travelled, tells of their past and present condition and his- 
tory, and gives the many incidents which befel him and his family 
during an extended tour through those far-famed Eastern lands. Its 
illustrations embrace a view of Bethlehem ; of the Holy Sepulchre, at 
Jerusalem ; of the Pool of Siloam ; of the Garden of Gethsemane ; of 
the Valley of Jehoshaphat ; of the Mosque of Omar, which now stands 
on the site of Solomon's Temple, at Jerusalem ; of the church where 
Christ was born, at Bethlehem of Judea ; of ploughing in Syria ; of 
a Druse marriage procession ; of the ruins of Baalbec ; of flat-top houses 
in Syria; of the cedars of Lebanon, etc., etc., etc. 

It transports the reader, by easy and pleasant stages, from Alexandria, 
in Egypt, to Constantinople, in Turkey, and shows him every city, 
town, village, mountain, valley, lake, and river between these two 
points ; entertaining him, meanwhile, with the thousand-and-one inter- 
esting incidents of sight-seeing which occur every day, and almost 
every hour, on the way. It grows more and more instructive as a 
history, and more and more thrilling and instructive as a narrative, from 
the first page to the last. 

Next to the Bible, there is no book so intensely interesting to a 
Christian reader as that of the land where Christ was born — where he 
did all his mighty works — where he died upon the cross— and where 
he rose again from the dead. This book tells the whole story of 
" Jesus and the Cross," as well as what relates in those lands to Abra- 
ham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Patriarchs. It should be on the centre- 
table or in the library of every house from Maine to Georgia — from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. 



2 VALUABLE AND INTERESTING WORKS. 

Elizabeth's Mission (Faithful and True) : A Parable of 
What Might Have Been, of What Was, and of What 
Will Be. I vol., crown octavo, cloth, gilt, thoroughly 
illustrated. Price, $2.00. 

Within the past few years a perfect tornado of crime, or malignant 
persecution (which of the two the reading of this book will help the 
reader to determine), has swept over New Jersey, carrying into the State- 
prison a score or more of men who, up to that time, had been counted 
as among its most worth)' citizens. Among those thus sent to State- 
prison were such as had been Senators, Assemblymen, United States 
Commissioners, Judges, State and County Treasurers, County Solicitors, 
City Comptrollers, Freeholders, Officers in the Army, Lawyers, Doctors, 
Ministers, Officers of Banks, wealthy Farmers, and others. It seemed, 
for a time, that all the elements of society had been unhinged, and that 
no man, no matter what his position, was safe in person, property, or 
reputation. 

This one great fact in current history forms the ground-v/ork of the 
parable of " Elizabeth'' s Mission^ Most of the prominent men thus 
imprisoned are noticed in this work in some way or other; but one 
especially — a Doctor Francis, so named — is represented in this book 
as the husband of the Elizabeth who is made the heroine of the 
story, and it is her Faithfulness and Truthfulness to him that consti- 
tutes the gist of the parable, and around which all other parts are made 
to revolve. There are a large number of characters introduced, each 
to play his or her own particular part ; but this Elizabeth is made the 
central character, and from the conversations which occur between her 
and her husband, at different times and under different circumstances, 
each moral of the story (of which there are quite a number) is drawn. 

A critical eye cannot fail to observe that the Elizabeth of the story 
is the velvet glove over the steel hand of the Doctor ; and while the 
one smooths by her gentleness and by her lovableness of character 
(than which a more perfect and lovable one was never drawn), the 
other crushes with arguments from antecedent probability, from sign, 
and from example, until nothing remains of those he takes in hand. 
"While the Doctor is thus crushing to some, he is no less loving to 
others. The comments he makes upon those whom his wife names at 
one of their sittings prove that his love toward his friends is like that 
of Jonathan toward David, or Damon toward Pythias — wholly bound- 
less. Elizabeth's love exceeds the Doctor's just as much as a woman's 
should exceed a man's, and in no respect are the two characters more 
admirably drawn than in this. His is a masculine hate and love, hers 
a womanly, — the two uniting in intense love for each other. 

The reformation which such a book should work in Criminal Pro- 
cedure can only be likened to what ^^ Uncle Tom's Cabin'" did work 
in political procedure — convulsion, war to the knife, and final aboli- 
tion of all that is wrong in the system; until it should be as impossible 
for an innocent man to suffer wrong as for a guilty one to escape pun- 
ishment. 

No one can read this book without profit, nor without an increasing 
thrill of pleasurable excitement from the first chapter to the last. 



VALUABLE AND INTERESTING WORKS. 3 

Secrets of the Late Rebellion, now Revealed fop the First 

Time. I vol., crown octavo, fully illustrated, cloth and 

gilt. Price, ;^2,oo. 

Since the war of the Great Rebellion began and ended, nothing has 
appeared in print of such thrilling interest as this will prove to be. I 
say this unhesitatingly now, after reading the manuscript, and have no 
fear of having to take a single word of it back. The disguising and 
passing of an English Lord, under the conduct of a Rebel Colonel, 
through the Union and Rebel lines, from Washington to Richmond and 
back ; what occurred at old Aunt Rachel's cabin ; the Lord and the 
Colonel's ride in a two-wheeled dirt-cart, behind a blind mule, from 
midnight to daylight; the Lord's grand reception and princely treat- 
ment at Richmond, and by the " Cotton-Kings " on his return to Phila- 
delphia and New York ; the passing and re-passing of English manu- 
facturers and New York cotton speculators through the Union and 
Rebel lines, under the conduct of the same Rebel Colonel : the con- 
sultations in Philadelphia and Baltimore by " Cotton-Kings," and how 
they managed to " shut the eye " of the Government, while aiding the 
Rebels and making immense profits for themselves ; the killing of one 
of Baker's detectives by one of President Davis's " underground con- 
ductors ;" the interview between Senator (afterwards President) Johnson 
and a Rebel Colonel ; the dangers and hair-breadth escapes of this same 
Colonel on several occasions ; the secret operations of Moseby's gue- 
rilla band, never before revealed, including the burning alive, frequent 
robbery, and frequent murder of Union officers and soldiers ; the " Bay- 
onet " court at Alexandria; its trial of slave-masters for horrible 
whippings of their slaves, and of Rebels for assaults upon Union citi- 
zens; the "Hutchinson concert" at Alexandria, guarded by Union 
soldiers; interviews between the Provost Judge and President Lincoln, 
Secretary Cameron, Attorney-General Bates, and others — all these and 
scores of others of like character, being once read, can never be effaced 
from the memory. 

These facts (most of which are now for the first time revealed) ex- 
plain many things about the Rebellion which, at the time, were pro- 
found mysteries to everybody ; especially, why it was that the war 
could last nearly five years, when everybody, at the beginning, thought 
it could be finished in three months ; and how and why it was that 
hundreds of millions of dollars had to be expended, and tens of thou- 
sands of lives sacrificed, when the expenditure of a single million of 
dollars, and the loss of a single thousand lives, should have settled 
the whole affair. The last few chapters are altogether the most terri- 
ble indictments against a party and against a church ever drawn by the 
pen of man. The arranging of facts in the form of proposition and 
proof, and then the inferences or conclusions drawn from those facts, 
are the most damaging and damning that could have been put in the 
form of words. If either party or church can survive such a blow, 
then Bacon's saying, that " The pen is mightier than the sword," will 
have to be reversed. Every man in the United States ought to read 
this book, and until he does read it, he never can or will fully under- 
stand the great War of the Rebellion. 




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